Hartnett — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hAirtnéada
Meaning: 'descendant of Airtnéad'
Traditional stronghold: Cork, Limerick
Pronunciation: HART-net; Irish Ó hAirtnéada: oh HART-nay-da
History of the Hartnett name
Ó hAirtnéada descends from the old personal name Airtnéad, whose first element is likely art, an archaic word for 'bear' and by extension 'champion'. The name's homeland is the borderland where west Limerick meets north Cork and Kerry, around Newcastle West, Abbeyfeale and Kanturk, and it has remained tightly concentrated there for centuries, with Harnett a common alternative spelling in Limerick. The area's deep Gaelic literary tradition found a modern voice in Michael Hartnett of Newcastle West, who famously bade 'a farewell to English' in 1975 to write in Irish, before returning to English in later collections.
Variants: Harnett · Hartnet
Famous bearers of the name
- Michael Hartnett — Newcastle West poet who wrote in both Irish and English, author of A Farewell to English.
- Josh Hartnett — American film actor of Irish descent.
- Gabby Hartnett — Irish-American baseball catcher, a Hall of Famer with the Chicago Cubs.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Brien · Ryan · O'Sullivan · McCarthy · Daly · Collins · Fitzgerald