De Ráiléigh

de RÁILÉIGH—XI—de Rayleg, de Raleigh, de Raley, Rally, Rawley, Rawleigh, Raleigh; Norman 'de Ralegh,' i.e., of Raleigh in England; the name (1) of an old Anglo-Norman family who settled at Rawleystown and other places in Co. Limerick and the adjoining parts of Tipperary, where it is still common; and (2) of an old Anglo-Norman family in Co. Kildare. This surname appears in old Anglo-Irish records under a great variety of spellings, and the same is true of English records; Bardsley gives seventeen different forms from the Index to the Register of Oxford University alone. In Co. Limerick 'de Raley' and 'de Roley,' 'Rawlie' and 'Rowlie,' 'Rawley' and 'Rowley,' occur side by side down to the end of the 16th century, when Richard Rowlie, alias Raleigh, of Raleighston (also called Rawleystown, Rolleston, and Ballynrowley), Co. Limerick, gentleman, was the recipient of a pardon from Queen Elizabeth; and Raleigh, Rowley, Roley, etc., as English place-names, are, or were, similarly interchangeable.

Alphabetical Index to Irish Surnames