Twomey - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Tuama
Meaning: descendant of Tuaim
Traditional stronghold: Cork
Pronunciation: TWOH-mee; Irish O Tuama: oh TOO-ma
History of the Twomey name
Twomey comes from O Tuama, 'descendant of Tuama', a name connected to tuaim, meaning a burial mound or tumulus, likely referring to a place associated with the family's founder. The sept was based in County Cork, particularly around the parish of Kinsale and later spreading widely through the county, making Twomey one of the more distinctively Cork surnames in Ireland. Unlike many Munster names of similar age, Twomey largely avoided anglicisation into an unrelated English word, keeping its Gaelic form essentially intact except for orthographic changes. It remains today overwhelmingly concentrated in County Cork and its immediate neighbours.
Variants: Toomey · O'Twomey
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Sullivan · McCarthy · Daly · Collins · Flynn · Healy · Casey