Keating surname history

Although Keating is found as a surname in England, where it derives from the Old English Cyting, from cyt, meaning "kite", in Ireland it is almost always of Norman origin. The town of Keeston in Pembrokeshire got its name from the family and was almost certainly their home in Wales. The family arrived with the Cambro-Norman invaders in the twelfth century and soon became thoroughly Irish, settling in south Leinster, and particularly in Co. Wexford, where the most prominent family were based at Baldwinstown castle. The extent of the family?s adoption of Irish ways is vividly illustrated in the descriptions given of them by English writers of the 16th and 17th centuries: in 1567 the Keatings of Carlow were "ill-disposed rebels"; in 1562, the Keatings of Wexford were "out in rebellion and burned many houses"; in 1613 the Keatings of Laois were described as a "great sept of people".

The family left their mark also on Irish placenames in the south and east of the country. There are two Keatingstowns in Kilkenny, one Cloghkeating in Limerick and another in Tipperary, and a Ballykeating in north Cork.

The most famous historical bearer of the name was Geoffrey Keating (or Seathrun Ceitinn) the poet and historian who lived in the first half of the seventeenth century and wrote Foras Feasa ar Eireann, a narrative history of the country defending it against the accounts given by foreign writers..

Paul John Keating, (1944- ), of Irish emigrant extraction, was prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996).He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1969, becoming the nation's youngest federal deputy, and served as treasury minister (1983-1991) and deputy prime minister (1990-1991) before ousting Bob Hawke as ALP leader and prime minister (Australia's youngest ever) in December 1991 Sean Keating (1889-1977) was an artist specialising in traditional scenes, particularly of the Aran islands and was president of the Royal Hibernian Academy for fourteen years.

Justin Keating ( 1930) is well-known as a politician, a veterinary surgeon, a lecturer and broadcaster.. He as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1973 to 1979.