Harrington - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hArrachtáin
Meaning: “powerful, mighty”
Traditional stronghold: Cork, Kerry
Pronunciation: HAR-ing-tun; Irish Ó hIongardail: oh HING-ar-dil
History of the Harrington name
Though it looks like a transplanted English place-name surname, Harrington in Ireland is almost always Gaelic. In west Cork and south Kerry, its great stronghold, it anglicises Ó hIongardail (also written Ó hUrdail), a sept of the Beara peninsula and Bantry country long associated with the O'Sullivans; in Connacht it stands for Ó hArrachtáin, from arrachtach ('mighty, powerful'). The English form was adopted wholesale in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because of its familiar sound. The Beara Harringtons were noted followers of O'Sullivan Beare, and the name remains extraordinarily concentrated there: Castletownbere and its hinterland still count Harrington among their commonest names.
Variants: Harington · O'Harrington · Hingerdell
Famous bearers of the name
- Pádraig Harrington - Dublin golfer who won the Open Championship twice and the PGA Championship in 2007-08.
- Timothy Harrington - Irish Parliamentary Party MP and Lord Mayor of Dublin, architect of the Plan of Campaign.
- Paul Harrington - Singer who won the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest with Rock 'n' Roll Kids.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Sullivan · O'Connor · McCarthy · Daly · O'Connell · Collins · Fitzgerald