This toponymic surname may derive from prender from a Germanic word for fire or conflagration (cf.
geest) from a Germanic word for wasteland or dry and infertile land meaning the location could have been a burn-beat area.
[2] Variants of Prendergast include: Pender, Pendergast, Prandergast, Brandergast, Pendergrass, Penders, Pendy, Pinder, Pinders, Pindy, Prender, Prendergrast, Prendergest, Prindergast, Pendergist and the (Gaelicised) de Priondargás.
In Ireland, Prendergast is regarded as a Hiberno-Norman name and is usually derived from a 12th-century Cambro-Norman knight, Maurice de Prendergast, who was born in Pembrokeshire and came to Ireland with the Earl of Pembroke, Richard "Strongbow" de Clare.
Many of Maurice de Prendergast's immediate descendants lived in County Tipperary and southern Mayo.