Healy - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hÉalaighthe
Meaning: “ingenious, claimant”
Traditional stronghold: Cork
Pronunciation: HEE-lee; Irish O hEalaithe or O hEilidhe: oh HAL-ee
History of the Healy name
O hEalaithe, sometimes rendered O hEilidhe, means 'descendant of the ingenious one', and the sept was principally located in west Cork around Donoughmore and in south Galway. A separate branch held lands in the Cork/Kerry border area near Bantry. The name was well established by the late medieval period and produced learned families associated with poetry and the law. It anglicised to Healy fairly consistently, with the O prefix largely lost, and the family became especially numerous in Munster. Emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries carried the name across Britain, the United States and Australia, where it remains a well-known Irish surname today.
Variants: O'Healy · Healey · Hely
Famous bearers of the name
- Tim Healy - Irish nationalist politician and first Governor-General of the Irish Free State
- John Healy - Irish journalist and author known for Nineteen Acres
- Denis Healey - British Labour politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer, of Irish descent
- Jeremy Healy - English DJ of Irish heritage
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Sullivan · McCarthy · Daly · Collins · Flynn · Casey · Hayes