Origin of the Name Fogarty
The origin of the name
Fogarty was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Fogarty
include Fogerty and Fogartie. These names are taken from the O'Fogartaigh sept that was of sufficient importance to give its name to a large territory called Eliogarty, being the Southern part of Eile or Ely, the Northern being Ely Carroll. Eliogarty is now the name of the barony of County Tipperary in which the town of Thurles is situated. Though located outside the area associated with Dalcassian septs these families are regarded as Dalcassian in origin. The ancient text 'The Annals of Ulster ', under the date 1072, describe the Chief of the sept as O'Fogarty, King of Ely. In modern times the name is seldom rendered with its original prefix 'O'.
The Fogarty coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Fogarty descendants.