Kildare’s historical landscape includes a county town name, a major administrative centre at Naas and territorial labels that crossed later boundaries.
⊕Recorded locationKildare53.18227° N · 6.82181° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Cill Dara· Irish · main form · validated name
Kildare· English · main form
Place & story
An inland Leinster setting
Lewis’s 1837 county article places Kildare between Dublin and Wicklow to the east and the then King’s and Queen’s counties to the west. Its discussion of earlier territories uses the Liffey, Barrow, Bog of Allen and Wicklow uplands as reference points. Rivers and wetlands help locate those descriptions, but should not be converted into exact historical boundaries without more evidence. A landscape feature and an administrative line can coincide only for part of their course.[2]
The county and the town of Kildare
The town entry associates Kildare with Brigid’s religious foundation and a diocesan role. Naas appears separately as market and assize town on the southern road. Those functions make clear why the settlement lending a county its name need not perform every administrative role within it. A document mentioning Kildare might concern the town, county or diocese; the institution and date are necessary to decide which.[3][4]
Do not confuse Offaly labels
Lewis locates Kildare town in East Offaly barony while discussing the neighbouring King’s County separately. Historical Offaly or Offallia references therefore need their own context rather than an automatic match to the modern county. For family research, retain the barony, civil parish and townland exactly as supplied, then compare their dated jurisdictions. The county’s older lordship history can explain a property record, but prominent Fitzgerald or other family names do not establish an individual ancestor’s descent.[2][3]
Figures cover the whole county including its cities. CSO recommends this series for long-term comparison, although minor boundary changes have occurred.
View population figures
County Kildare, including its cities — census population
placenames