HEALY Last Name Meaning and Origin

The popular Irish surname Healy, is a shortened form of OHealy, an anglicized form of one of the following: (1) the Gaelic surname  Ãƒâ€œ hÉilidhe, meaning descendant of the claimant, from the Gaelic  Ãƒ ©ilidhe, meaning claimant. The  Ãƒâ€œ hÉilidhe clan originated in  Connaught. (2) the Gaelic surname  Ãƒâ€œ hÉalaighthe, meaning descendant of  Ãƒâ€°aladhach, a given name likely derived from ealadhach, meaning ingenious. The  Ãƒâ€œ hÉalaighthe clan originated in Munster. Healy is now rarely found with the O prefix, such as OHealy, OHaly or OHely, all common forms of the surname up to the end of the seventeenth century. Healy may also be a geographical English surname for any of the places named  Healey (or variants such as Hayleg, Helei, Heley, Helagh, and Helay) found in Lancashire, Northumberland or Yorkshire.  The name means the high clearing or wood, derived from the Old English heah, meaning high and leah, meaning glade or clearing in a wood. Healy is one of  50 common Irish surnames  of modern Ireland, ranking forty-seventh on the list with a total Irish population of about 13,000.   Surname Origin:  Irish, English Alternate Surname Spellings: HEALEY, HEELEY, HEELY,  OHEALY, OHALY, OHELY, OHEALEY, HALY, HELY, HAILY Famous People with the Surname HEALY Mark Healy - American surferCecil Healy - Australian swimmerDermot Healy - Irish novelist, playwright, and poetJames Augustine Healy - first  African-American Roman Catholic bishop in the United StatesRoy Healy - American rocket scientistTimothy Michael Healy - Irish politician ​Genealogy Resources for the Surname HEALY World Names Surname Profiler - Distribution of the HEALY SurnameTrace the geography and distribution of the HEALY surname through this free online database. It is fairly common throughout Ireland, with the greatest concentrations found in western Ireland. HEALY Family Genealogy ForumSearch this popular genealogy forum for the Healy surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Healy surname query. FamilySearch - HEALY GenealogyExplore over 2 million results, including digitized records, database entries, and online family trees for the Healy surname and variants on the FREE FamilySearch website, courtesy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. HEALY Surname Family Mailing ListsRootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers of the Healy surname. DistantCousin.com - HEALY Genealogy Family HistoryFree databases and genealogy links for the last name Healy. Cant find your last name listed? Suggest a surname to be added to the Glossary of Surname Meanings Origins. References: Surname Meanings & Origins Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967.Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. New York:  Oxford University Press, 2003.MacLysaght, Edward.  Surnames of Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1989.Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.