Prendergast (surname): Difference between revisions

'''Prendergast''' is a [[WelshBritish people|WelshBritish]] and [[Irish people|Irish]] surname.

This [[toponymic surname]] may derive from ''prender'' from a Germanic word for fire or conflagration (cf. brand) where the ''b'' became ''p'' due to [[fortition]] and ''gast'' (cf. [[geest]]) from a germanicGermanic word for wasteland or dry and infertile land meaning the location could have been a [[wikt:burn-beat|burn-beat]] area. Others think the name is a Saxonized form of Bryn y Gest from the Welsh [[wikt:bryn#Welsh|bryn]] meaning hill and gest a [[lenition]] of ''cest'' which means belly or swelling or a deep glen between two mountains having but one opening. It could also lessly come from Pren-dwr-gwest, the inn by the tree near the water. The right etymology is probably Pen-dre-gast. The suffix ast (cf. [[wikt:gast#Welsh|gast]]) is of Welsh origin like the names of the [[wikt:cromlech|cromlech]] [[chamber tomb]] of Penllech yr Ast (''the chief slab of the bitch'') or Llech-yr-ast (''Bitch's stone''), in [[Llangoedmor]], Cardiganshire or Gwâl y Filiast (''Lair of the Greyhound Bitch'') or Carn Nant-yr-ast or Llety'r Filiast or Twlc y Filiast.<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Morgan|title=Handbook of the Origin of Place-Names in Wales and Monmouthshire|id={{ASIN|1150347619|country=uk}}}}</ref> Alternatively, the name may come from a lost Flemish settlement near Ghent, known as Brontegeest. Pembrokeshire had a significant Flemish population by the twelfth century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://journals.library.wales/view/2919943/2996217/70|title=Archaeologia Cambrensis (1846-1899) &#124; Third Series No. XLI January 1865 &#124; 1865 &#124; Welsh Journals - The National Library of Wales|website=journals.library.wales}}</ref>

* [[Edmond Francis Prendergast]] (1843–1918), Irish-born Roman Catholic prelate and Archbishop of Philadelphia, who gave misnamehis name to [[Archbishop Prendergast High School]] in Philadelphia, U.S.

* [[Mike Prendergast (rugby union)]] (born 1977), Irish rugby union footballer

* [[Shaun Prendergast]] ( Bornborn 1958) British actor, playwright, screenwriter and novelist

Variants of Prendergast include: [[Pender (disambiguation)|Pender]], [[Pendergast]], [[Prandergast]], [[Brandergast]], [[Pendergrass (disambiguation)|Pendergrass]], [[Pender (disambiguation)|Penders]], [[Pendy]], [[Pinder (disambiguation)|Pinder]], [[Pinders]], [[Pindy]], [[Prender]], [[Prendergrast]], [[Prendergest]], [[Prindergast]], [[Pendergist]] and the ([[Gaelicisation|Gaelicised]]) de Priondargás.