Hurley - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó hUrthuile
Meaning: possibly “sea tide”
Traditional stronghold: Clare, Cork
Pronunciation: HUR-lee; Irish Ó Muirthile: oh MWIR-hil-eh
History of the Hurley name
Hurley anglicises two distinct Gaelic surnames. In County Cork, much the biggest source, it stands for Ó Muirthile, a sept of the southwest whose descendants are still numerous around Clonakilty and Kilbrittain. In Clare and Limerick it represents Ó hUrthuile, a family associated with the lands near Sixmilebridge. The English form, suggesting the hurling stick, is a coincidence of sound rather than meaning. The name travelled heavily with emigration from Munster, and Hurleys are found throughout the English-speaking world; at home Cork still accounts for the greatest number by far.
Variants: Hurly · O'Hurley · Herlihy (sometimes confused) · Ó Muirthile
Famous bearers of the name
- Red Hurley - Irish singer and showband star who represented Ireland at Eurovision in 1976.
- Liam Ó Muirthile - Cork poet, a leading voice of modern literature in Irish.
- Doug Hurley - NASA astronaut of Irish descent who commanded the first crewed SpaceX flight in 2020.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Brien · O'Sullivan · McCarthy · Kennedy · Quinn · Daly · Collins