Fitzsimons

Fitzsimons (also spelled FitzSimons, Fitzsimmons or FitzSimmons) is an Irish surname of Norman origin. The Gaelicisation of this surname is Mac Shíomóin.

The name "FitzSymons" and its pre-standardization variants (Fitzsimons, Fitzsimmons, Fitz-Simons, etc.) is not a sept, or clan, name, but rather an individual patronymic passed down through various, yet discrete, colonial families arriving at different times in Irish history. Some families "went native" during the Gaelic revival of the 14th and 15th centuries, and many refused to endorse the Protestant Reformation. Others became important members of the Protestant Ascendancy and its supporting mittelstand. Two distinct families can be identified: those who arrived when the surname was first recorded in Ireland in 1177, attached to an adventurer seeking swordlands in Ulster, known as Sir John de Courcy of Carrickfergus Castle, earl of Ulster. These Fitzsimons are now native to the east-central seaboard of Ulster, in Lecale, Ards and Down.