Hickey
Ó hÍcí · descendant of the healer
Hickey is Ó hÍcí in Irish, said oh HEE-kee, and means descendant of the healer.
Íceadh means a healer. Hereditary physicians to the O’Briens of Thomond, one of several medical families whose Irish medical manuscripts still survive.
How it changes
- A man: Ó hÍcí
- His daughter: Ní Ící
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Ící
- The family together: Uí Ící
Where it comes from
Clare and Tipperary
Also spelt
Hickey, O’Hickey, Hickie
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.