Family name origins & meanings
- Irish (southern Ulster) : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Searraigh ‘son of Searrach’, a personal name based on searrach ‘foal’. It is sometimes further Anglicized as Foley.
- Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Séartha ‘son of Séartha’, a personal name equivalent to English Geoffrey. This was the patronymic surname adopted by a County Cork family of Welsh origin, formerly named Hodnett.
- Scottish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Siridh ‘son of Siridh’, a personal name of Old Norse origin, either from the male name Sigfrid or Sigurðr or from the female Sigfríðr. The first element in each is sigr ‘victory’, while the final elements are, respectively, frid ‘peace’, vörðr ‘guardian’, and fríðr ‘fair’, ‘beautiful’.