O'Horgan History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• Ireland

Etymology of O'Horgan

While the Anglicized versions of Irish names are familiar to most people, many Irish names have a long and proud Gaelic heritage that is often unknown. The original Gaelic form of the name O'Horgan is Ó hArgain.

Early Origins of the O'Horgan family

Early History of the O'Horgan family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our O'Horgan research. Another 174 words (12 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1715, 1849, 1880 and 1922 are included under the topic Early O'Horgan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

O'Horgan Spelling Variations

The spelling of names in Ireland during the Middle Ages was rarely consistent. This inconsistency was due to the scribes and church officials' attempts to record orally defined names in writing. The common practice of recording names as they sounded resulted in spelling variations such as Horgan, O'Horgan, Horgon, Hourigan, Horrigan, O'Hourigan, O'Horrigan, Arragan, O'Arragan, Aragan, Harrigan, O'Harrigan and many more.

Early Notables of the O'Horgan family

More information is included under the topic Early O'Horgan Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the O'Horgan family

In the late 18th century, Irish families began emigrating to North America in the search of a plot of land to call their own. This pattern of emigration grew steadily until the 1840s when the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s cause thousands of Irish to flee the death and disease that accompanied the disaster. Those that made it alive to the shores of the United States and British North America (later to become Canada) were, however, instrumental in the development of those two powerful nations. Many of these Irish immigrants proudly bore the name of O'Horgan: John Horgon, who settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1853; Michael and Mary Horgan settled in Boston Massachusetts in 1847; John Horgan settled in Frederick Co. Maryland in 1798.