The Parrishs

The Parrish name is evolved from Parisii who were a Celtic iron age clan that lived on the banks of the river Seine in Gaul (near now Paris, France) from the middle of the third century until the Roman era. The Parisii participated in the general rising of Vercingetorix against Julius Caesar in 52 BC, but were overrun by the number and strength of Roman soldiers and ceded their land to Rome. The surviving Parisii fled to an isolated strip in of land around Lincolnshire, England and from there spread out into what is now Ireland.

Since Parisii was an odd name in this new Angelo–Saxon land, the custom of the time for a last name to be simply "of some place", and some just wanted to blend in, most of clan began to change their surnames. Some kept Parisii; some changed it "Paris" or "de Paris" (of Paris).  As they moved into Ireland, more of the clans added "h" to their name; variations became O'Paris, O'Parish, (with the “O” to simplify “of”), and Parish. Then "The Church" came along and used "Parish" to denote areas, so the second "r" was added by some so as not to be associated with the Church.



Why did this happen?

These name changes happened over many generations and were prompted by a variety of factors (including: a desire to fit in or not stand out as different; to gain favor with or avoid conflict with "the powers that be"; or just because people were not educated and it just happened — as in census takers and tax roll compilers used to change spellings).