Irish surnames starting with H

The H names in brief

• Hackett · Haicéid · Norman
  Son of Haket, a Norman personal name. The Hacketts came into Ireland at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, Woulfe writes, and settled in Dublin, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Tipperary and elsewhere. The name appears often in early Anglo-Irish records.
• Halligan · Ó hAilleagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ailleagán, a diminutive of áille, ‘handsome, beautiful’. An old Ulster surname, Woulfe writes, also spelt Ó hAllagáin, and by his day common in Mayo and Roscommon too.
• Hallinan · Ó hAilgheanáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ailgheanán, 'noble offspring'. An old Munster surname, chiefly in Cork and Limerick, Woulfe writes, and apparently also of Connacht, then not uncommon in west Mayo. MacBeathaidh Ó hAilgheanáin was Bishop of Cork at the beginning of the 12th century.
• Halpin · Ó hAilpín · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ailpín. Woulfe traces the name to County Monaghan, though it has been found in Limerick for centuries. Halpin, Halpenny and Halfpenny were used interchangeably before literacy settled the spelling — the registers of Drogheda record all three for the same families.
• Hamill · Ó hÁdhmaill · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ádhmall, 'quick, ready, active'. A branch of the Cinéal Eoghain, Woulfe writes, still numerous in Ulster. He names no particular territory; the counties shown are approximate.
• Hanafin · Ó hAinbhtheáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ainbhtheán, a diminutive of Ainbhioth. A well-known surname in Cork and Kerry, Woulfe writes. He thought it quite possibly stood there for the old Corca Laoighdhe surname Ó hAinbhith.
• Hanley · Ó hÁinle · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Áinle, 'beauty' or 'hero'. Chiefs of Cinel Dobhtha, later called Doohy Hanly, a district along the Shannon in Roscommon taking in Kilglass, Termonbarry and Cloontuskert, held as tributaries of O'Conor Don into the 17th century. Woulfe notes that in 1568-9 Elizabeth named Gillyerneuf O Haly captain of the country after his father, and in 1582 Fergananym O Hanly was made its seneschal.
• Hanlon · Ó hAnluain · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anluan, 'great champion'. Anluan means great hero or champion. The O'Hanlons were a distinguished Oriel family, chiefs of Uí Nialláin, now Oneilland, and once of Oirthear, now the barony of Orior, in Armagh, and the annals name many of their chiefs.
• Hannigan · Ó hAnnagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Annagán — from annadh, delay. An old Limerick surname, in Woulfe's account, probably a variant there of Ó hAnnáin (Hannon).
• Hannon · Ó hAnnáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Annán — from annadh, delay. Woulfe calls Ó hAnnáin an old family of Co. Limerick, where it remained common.
• Hanrahan · Ó hAnradháin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anradhán, 'warrior, champion'. Woulfe finds four families of Ó hAnradháin: a Dalcassian family in Thomond, where it stayed very common; a west Cork family, erenaghs of Ross; a Laois family, chiefs of Uí Creamhthainn around Dunamase; and a Meath family, chiefs of Corcaree in Westmeath. Different districts wore the name down differently, which is how one name became Hanrahan, Hourihane, Hourigan, Horan, Horgan and Harrigan.
• Hanratty · Ó hAnrachtaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anrachtach, 'unlawful'. An Oriel family, Woulfe writes, chiefs of Uí Meith Macha, now the barony of Monaghan, and still common in Monaghan, Armagh and Louth.
• Harkin · Ó hEarcáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Earcán, a diminutive of earc, ‘red, speckled’. Woulfe calls Ó hEarcáin a common surname in Donegal and Derry. Ó hOrcáin, spelt Horkan and Harkin, was common in Mayo and Clare.
• Harnett · Ó hAirtnéada · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Airtnéada, 'battle-bear' or 'battle-stone' — a meaning Woulfe reconstructs rather than finds written. Woulfe calls Ó hAirtnéada the name of an old West Munster family, still numerous in Cork, Kerry and Limerick when he wrote in 1923. He records the clerks' attempts at it one after another: O Hartnedy, O Harniady, O Harnett, Harnedy, Hartnett and Harnett, which is why one family can turn up in the records under half a dozen spellings.
• Harrigan · Ó hArragáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anradhán, 'warrior, champion'. Woulfe treats Ó hArragáin as a worn-down form of Ó hAnradháin, the name behind Hanrahan, Horan and Horgan too, and says this form began in Laois (his Leix), where the family were anciently chiefs of Uí Creamhthainn around the Rock of Dunamase.
• Hart · Ó hAirt · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Art, ‘bear, stone, noble’. A Meath family originally seated near Tara, Woulfe writes. They lost those lands soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion and settled in the barony of Carbury, Co.
• Hartigan · Ó hArtagáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Artagán, 'little Art'. A Dalcassian family of Thomond, Woulfe writes, well known in Clare and Limerick. Dúnlaing Ó hArtagáin was one of the heroes of Clontarf, in 1014.
• Hassett · Ó hAiseadha · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Aisidh, 'strife'. An old Thomond family of the same stock as the MacNamaras, a branch of Clann Chuileáin, Woulfe writes, still well known around Limerick city and in other parts of Munster.
• Hayden · Ó hEideáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Eideadhán, a diminutive of Eideadh. Woulfe treats Ó hEideáin and Ó hEidín as variants of one name. He says it was formerly a common surname, especially in Roscommon, Tipperary and south Leinster.
• Hayes · Ó hAodha · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Aodh, 'fire'. Ó hAodha, from Aodh, fire, is numerically one of the strongest surnames in Ireland, and Woulfe lists thirteen separate families of it: lords of Uí Fiachrach of Ardstraw in Tyrone, chiefs around Ballyshannon, of Farney in Monaghan, of Odhbha near Navan and of Uí Deaghaidh around Gorey, lords of Muscraighe-Luachra in north-west Cork, a Corca Laoighdhe family in south-west Cork, a Dál gCais family, families in Uí Maine and in Mayo and Sligo, and more. It is generally Hughes in the north and Hayes in the south; the Ó is almost everywhere dropped, except by the south-west Cork family, who kept it as O'Hea.
• Healy · Ó hÉilidhe / Ó hÉalaighthe · Gaelic sept
  'claimant' (Sligo) or 'ingenious' (Cork). Ó hÉilidhe, from Ealadhach, scientific or ingenious. Woulfe's family is a Sligo one: they held the Curlews, Ballinafad and the country around the western shore of Lough Arrow, with their chief house at Ballyhely, now in the demesne of Hollybrooke, and ranked among the Sligo gentry until the Cromwellian period.
• Heffernan · Ó hIfearnáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ifearnán. An ancient family who were chiefs of Uaithne-Cliach, now the barony of Owneybeg in the east of Co. Limerick, until the O'Mulryans pushed them out in the 14th century.
• Hegarty · Ó hÁgartaigh · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Fágartach. Woulfe gives Hegarty only briefly, as a variant of Ó hÓgartaigh, from the personal name Fágartach, and lists the spellings Hagarty, Hagerty, Hegarty and Heggerty. He names no territory in this entry, so the counties shown are approximate.
• Hehir · Ó hAichir · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Aichear, ‘sharp, bitter, angry’. A Thomond family who, at the end of the 11th century, were lords of Magh Adhair, between Ennis and Tulla. They later settled in Uí Cormaic, west of the Fergus, between Ennis and Slieve Callan.
• Heneghan · Ó hÉineacháin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Eidhneachán. A family of the Uí Fiachrach in Co. Mayo, Woulfe writes, who once held a large estate in the parishes of Manulla and Balla.
• Hennessy · Ó hAonghusa · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Aonghus. Aonghus is one-choice, and Woulfe counts four Ó hAonghusa families: lords of Clann Cholgan in Offaly, a district matching the barony of Lower Philipstown; lords of Uí Mac Uais in the barony of Moyfenrath in Meath; chiefs of Gailenga Beaga in Meath and north Dublin; and a Dalcassian family in Thomond. The name is now common throughout Munster and Leinster, Richard Hennessy of Ballymacmoy, County Cork, who served in France's Irish Brigade, founded the cognac house that bears the name in 1765.
• Henry · Ó hInneirghe · Gaelic septs (several)
  Descendant of Inneirghe, ‘the rising, early riser’; or Mac Éinrí, son of Henry. Ó hInneirghe was a family of the Cinéal Eoghain who were chiefs of Cuileanntrach in Co. Tyrone.
• Hession · Ó hOisín · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Oisín, a diminutive of os, ‘a deer’. An old surname in Connacht, Woulfe writes, where it was still common. Two of the family held the see of Tuam in the 11th and 12th centuries.
• Hickey · Ó hÍcidhe · Gaelic learned family
  Descendant of the healer (íce, 'healing'). Ó hÍcidhe, from Íceadh, healer: a medical family of the Dál gCais who were hereditary physicians to the O'Briens and other families of Thomond, seated at Ballyhickey in the parish of Clooney in Clare. The name is now common all over Munster.
• Higgins · Ó hUiginn · Gaelic learned family
  Descendant of Uige, 'knowledge, skill'. Ó hUiginn: a branch of the southern Uí Néill in Westmeath and one of the most distinguished literary families in Ireland — the Four Masters name eleven poets of the name. A branch settled in County Sligo and held land there until the Cromwellian confiscations.
• Hogan · Ó hÓgáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Ógán, 'the young one'. Ógán is a diminutive of óg, young. Woulfe gives two families: a Dál gCais family, descended from Coscrach, uncle of Brian Boru, seated at Ardcrony about four miles north of Nenagh in Tipperary; and a family of the Corca Laoighdhe in south-west Cork.
• Horan · Ó hArracháin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anradhán, 'warrior, champion'. Woulfe gives Ó hArracháin as one of the worn-down forms of Ó hAnradháin (see Hanrahan), common in Laois and Tipperary. He notes Horan also comes from Ó hAnnráin, another corruption of the same name.
• Hore · de Hór · Norman-English
  Hoar — 'grey-haired'. Norman le hore, the hoary or grey-haired. The family came with the invasion and settled in Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Waterford, Cork and Kerry; the Hores of Wexford, Woulfe says, were a distinguished and influential family.
• Horgan · Ó hArgáin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Anradhán, 'warrior, champion'. Woulfe says Ó hArgáin is a contracted form of Ó hArragáin, itself a corruption of Ó hAnradháin (see Hanrahan), and that this form is most frequent in Cork and Kerry.
• Hughes · Mac Aodha / Ó hAodha · Gaelic sept
  Son (or descendant) of Aodh, 'fire'. Mac Aodha, son of Aodh, now anglicised Hugh, is a very common surname, especially in Ulster and Connacht, and Woulfe counts several distinct families: in the barony of Clare in Galway a Mac Aodha of the O'Flaherty stock was chief of Clann Choscraigh. Its English forms include MacKay, MacKee, MacCoy, MacHugh and Hughes; MacCoy is almost peculiar to Limerick, where the family came from Ulster more than three centuries before his time.
• Hurley · Ó hUrthuile / Ó Muirthile · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Urthuile — 'sea-tide'. Ó hUrthuile, a Dál gCais family of Thomond, kin to the O'Moloneys and O'Kearneys, now dispersed through Munster. An important branch settled at Knocklong in east Limerick, where the ruins of their castle still stand on the hill, looking over the Galtees and the Limerick plain.
• Hynes · Ó hEidhin · Gaelic sept
  Descendant of Eidhean, ‘ivy’. A Galway family descended from Guaire Aidhne, King of Connacht in the 7th century. Woulfe says they were the chief family of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne for six hundred years, as lords of a district that covered roughly the same ground as the diocese of Kilmacduagh.

Also spelled with H

These are listed on the atlas under another spelling, but the H form is the one many families carry.