Hegarty - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hÉigceartaigh
Meaning: “unjust”
Traditional stronghold: Cork, Derry
Pronunciation: HEG-ar-tee; Irish O hEigceartaigh: oh HEG-kur-ta
History of the Hegarty name
Hegarty comes from O hEigceartaigh, meaning 'descendant of the unjust or hard one', from eigceart, unjust. The sept originated in County Donegal and spread into Derry and Tyrone, becoming one of the most numerous surnames in the north-west of Ireland. A branch also settled in Munster, particularly Cork, from an early date, giving the name a second, separate stronghold. Despite the harsh literal meaning of the root word, such names typically referred to a distant ancestor's disposition or a nickname rather than describing the family as a whole. Hegarty remains heavily concentrated in Derry and Donegal today, alongside its long-established Cork branch.
Variants: Haggerty · Hagerty · O'Hegarty
Famous bearers of the name
- Sir John Hegarty - Irish-born advertising executive, co-founder of the London agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty
- Frank Hegarty - Derry man and British Army intelligence agent whose 1986 killing became a notorious case of the Troubles
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Sullivan · O'Connor · McCarthy · Daly · Collins · Flynn · Healy