Hickey - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hÍcí
Meaning: “healer”
Traditional stronghold: Clare, Tipperary
Hereditary physicians to the O’Briens.
Pronunciation: HIK-ee; Irish Ó hÍcidhe: oh HEE-kee
History of the Hickey name
Ó hÍcidhe comes from ícidhe, 'healer', and the name was earned literally: the Hickeys were the hereditary physicians of the Dál gCais, serving the royal O'Briens of Thomond for generations. Their homeland lay at Ballyhickey near Quin in County Clare, and medical learning passed down within the family in the Gaelic manner, through manuscripts and apprenticeship. After the fall of the old order the name spread through Munster, and Hickey is today common in Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Cork. Notable descendants took the family talent into other fields, from eighteenth-century portrait painting to theology and film.
Variants: Hickie · O'Hickey
Famous bearers of the name
- Thomas Hickey - Dublin-born portrait painter who travelled with the Macartney embassy to China and died in Madras.
- Antony Hickey - Seventeenth-century Franciscan theologian at Louvain and Rome.
- Kieran Hickey - Influential Irish film director and documentary maker.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Brien · Ryan · Kennedy · Quinn · McDonnell · McMahon · Carroll · Boland