Holmes

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English (chiefly central and northern England) : variant of Holme.
• Scottish : probably a habitational name from Holmes near Dundonald, or from a place so called in the barony of Inchestuir.
• Scottish and Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Thomáis, Mac Thómais (see McComb). In part of western Ireland, Holmes is a variant of Cavish (from Gaelic Mac Thámhais, another patronymic from Thomas).
• John Holmes came from England to Woodstock, CT, in 1686. His descendants include the Congregational clergyman and historian Abiel Holmes, born 1763 in Woodstock, and Abiel’s son Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–94).

Famous people with this last name