The Names of the Great Houses of Westeros, Explored and Explained

House Tyrell and House Tully

“Tyrell” and “Tully” are two of a few names in the World of Ice and Fire that sound like standard English surnames. The first, “Tyrell,” has a Scandinavian history, either through the Danes who settled in England during the Early Middle Ages or the Normans. It is therefore either of Germanic or Romance origin. It might originally have denominated a stubborn person.

“Tully,” on the other hand, is an Irish nam. It is understood, quite fittingly, to mean “flood.”

While House Tully can trace its heritage back to the First Men. The origins of the Tyrells, on the other hand, are less clear. They claim to be descended from Garth Greenhand, the legendary high king who led the First Men into Westeros across the Arm of Dorne, but compared to the claims of many other houses in the Reach, House Tyrell’s seems weak. They trace their descendants through the female line, leaving the door open for them to be an Andal house. A Tyrell lord would surely downplay this in a region where many houses prize their descent from Garth Greenhand.

“Tully” is also the English rendering of “Tullius,” the middle name of famed Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero is arguably the greatest of all Roman orators, a prolific author and an enemy of Gaius Julius Caesar. Much like House Tully, Cicero was an upstart, a homo novus from a family of small renown who made it big in Rome.