The prefix "Kil" derives from the Irish "cill", meaning a cell or church, and points to a foundation that almost certainly pre-dates the Norman period in Ireland. That a church site bearing this kind of name exists in Kilkenny is not in itself surprising; the county is scattered with such places. What makes Kildalton quietly compelling is precisely how little attention it tends to attract, sitting somewhere in the landscape with the quiet persistence of sites that have been continuously overlooked.

The name Kildalton suggests a dedication or association with a figure named Dalton, or possibly an older ecclesiastical name that has been partially corrupted over centuries of oral and written transmission. Early Irish church sites of this type were frequently modest in scale, founded by local saints or clergy whose names appear in no major hagiography, and which served small rural communities before later medieval parishes reorganised the religious landscape. Many such sites were absorbed, abandoned, or simply forgotten as the Church consolidated during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. What physical fabric, if any, remains at Kildalton in Kilkenny, whether foundations, a burial ground, or standing walls, is not currently documented in accessible published form.