Fahy - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Fathaigh
Meaning: “foundation, green”
Traditional stronghold: Galway
Pronunciation: FAW-hee; Irish Ó Fathaigh: oh FAH-hee
History of the Fahy name
Ó Fathaigh is generally derived from fothadh, 'foundation'. The sept belonged to the Uí Maine and held a compact territory near Loughrea in south Galway known as Pobal Mhuintir Uí Fhathaigh, 'the country of the Fahy people', where the name is still thick on the ground. Fahy and Fahey are the usual spellings, but the name was sometimes shortened to Fay, and in places it was even 'translated' as Green through a mistaken association with faiche, meaning a lawn or green. Galway remains its heartland, though emigration carried Fahys in numbers to America, Australia and Argentina in the nineteenth century.
Variants: Fahey · Fay · Green
Famous bearers of the name
- Francis A. Fahy - Kinvara-born songwriter of The Ould Plaid Shawl and other enduring ballads.
- Anthony Fahy - Galway Dominican who ministered to the Irish community in nineteenth-century Argentina.
- Frank Fahy - Revolutionary and long-serving Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane · Kenny