Cassidy - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Caiside
Meaning: “curly-haired”
Traditional stronghold: Fermanagh
Hereditary physicians to the Maguires.
Pronunciation: KASS-ih-dee; Irish Ó Caiside: oh CASH-id-eh
History of the Cassidy name
The Cassidys were a learned family of Co. Fermanagh, where for some three centuries they served as hereditary physicians to the Maguires, lords of Fermanagh. Several Ó Caiside doctors and clerics appear in the annals from the 14th century onward, and members of the family were also poets and keepers of manuscripts, part of the professional learned class that underpinned Gaelic lordships. After the collapse of the Maguire lordship in the early 17th century the family scattered through Ulster and beyond, and the name is now found across Ireland, though Fermanagh, Tyrone and Monaghan remain its heartland. Emigration carried it strongly into Scotland, England and America, where it became a familiar Irish name.
Variants: Cassedy · Cassady · Casserly
Famous bearers of the name
- Eva Cassidy - American singer whose posthumous recordings of Fields of Gold and Over the Rainbow won worldwide fame.
- David Cassidy - American pop idol and Partridge Family star of Irish descent.
- Edward Cassidy - Australian cardinal of Irish stock who led the Vatican's work on Christian unity.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Maguire · Flanagan · Lennon · Corrigan · McManus · Devine · Heaney · Keenan