Ahern
Ó hEachthigheirn · descendant of the lord of horses
Ahern is Ó hEachthigheirn in Irish, said oh a-HERN, and means descendant of the lord of horses.
Each, a horse, and tighearna, a lord. Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach for eleven years, and the name has been in Munster since it left Clare in the fourteenth century.
How it changes
- A man: Ó hEachthigheirn
- His daughter: Ní Eachthigheirn
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Eachthigheirn
- The family together: Uí Eachthigheirn
Where it comes from
Clare, then Cork and Waterford
Also spelt
Ahern, Aherne, Hearn, Hearne
A name, not a pedigree
This is where the name came from, which is not the same as where you came from. Names were translated, anglicised, taken on by tenants and neighbours, and carried in by settlers who were no relation to the family that started them. To follow your own line, the 1901 and 1911 censuses are free and searchable, and give the county each person was born in.