Origin of the Name McGarry
The
McGarry family history 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 McGarry
include McGarrey, Garrihy, O'Hehir, Hehir, Hare and Garry. This important family has it's origin with the Ui Fidhgheinte group and has been established from the very earliest times in County Clare in the heart of Thomond. The great majority of these were descendants of the Oriel sept of O'Hir who were akin to the O'Hanlons and seated in the barony of Oriel, County Armagh.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
The Gaelic MacFhearadhaigh sept of Counties Leitrim and Roscommon also anglicized their name to McGarry and McGary. This Gaelic name is taken from the word 'fearadhach', meaning 'manly'.
The McGarry 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 McGarry descendants.