Where the Kelly name comes from

Kelly is Irish, and most often it is the anglicised O Ceallaigh, descendant of Ceallach. Ceallach was long read as bright-headed, but the understanding now preferred is frequenting churches, from the Irish ceall. The name can carry the sense of a warrior or fighter too, and in other families it is an anglicised O Cadhla instead. Kelly traces back to the Kings of Ui Maine, and it is one of those Irish names that arrived at a single English spelling from several different Irish ones.