Troy — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Troighthigh
Meaning: 'descendant of the foot-soldier' (troightheach)
Traditional stronghold: Clare, Tipperary
Pronunciation: TROY; Irish Ó Troighthigh: oh TROY-hee
History of the Troy name
Troy in Ireland has nothing to do with Homer: it anglicises Ó Troighthigh, from troightheach, 'foot-soldier', a Dalcassian family of County Clare who migrated eastward in the later Middle Ages into Tipperary and Limerick, where the name became well established around Clonmel and the Golden Vale. A separate Norman strand, de Troye, contributed a few families in Dublin and the east. The Catholic Church gave the name its most influential bearer in John Thomas Troy, the Dominican Archbishop of Dublin from 1786 to 1823, who steered the Irish church through rebellion and union and laid the foundation stone of Dublin's Pro-Cathedral.
Variants: Troye · O'Troy
Famous bearers of the name
- John Thomas Troy — Archbishop of Dublin for nearly four decades spanning 1798 and the Act of Union.
- Una Troy — Fermoy-born novelist and playwright whose work was filmed as She Didn't Say No.
- Dermot Troy — Acclaimed Irish tenor of the 1950s who died tragically young at 35.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Brien · Ryan · Kennedy · Quinn · McDonnell · McMahon · Carroll · Boland