O’Hara
Ó hEaghra · descendant of Eaghra
O’Hara is Ó hEaghra in Irish, said oh HAR-a, and means descendant of Eaghra.
Lords of Leyney in Sligo, and a branch crossed to the Glens of Antrim in the fourteenth century, which is why the name is common at both ends of the north.
How it changes
- A man: Ó hEaghra
- His daughter: Ní Eaghra
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Eaghra
- The family together: Uí Eaghra
Where it comes from
Sligo, and Antrim after a move north
Also spelt
O’Hara, Hara, Harra
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.