surnames.ie

Irish surname · 85th most common in 1911

Higgins

Also spelt O'Higgins

In Ireland, Higgins and O'Higgins come from Ó hUiginn, the name of a celebrated bardic family of the southern Uí Néill who settled in Co. Sligo. Sources disagree on the meaning: Woulfe linked it to a word for knowledge or skill, while recent writers derive it from the Norse word for a Viking.

Irish Ó hUiginnIrish Ó hUigínIrish Ó hUigeIrish Ó hAoilleacháin
1901 census
7,771
#86 · 18 per 10,000
1911 census
7,712
#85 · 18 per 10,000
1926 census
6,427
#79 · 22 per 10,000
Most numerous
Mayo
Highest share: Roscommon

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic & English (merged) Mostly Gaelic Irish, from the bardic Ó hUiginn family of Westmeath and Sligo; in England Higgins is a separate name formed from pet forms of Hugh and Richard.[1][2]

Ó hUiginn
“descendant of Uiginn”[1][3][2]
The usual Irish form today. Woulfe thought it reflected an older form, Ó hUigeann.
Ó hUigín
“descendant of Uigín”[1][4][5]
Woulfe calls this a dialect variant. Wikipedia gives Kevin O'Higgins's Irish name as Caoimhghín Ó hUigín, while President Michael D. Higgins is Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn.
Ó hUige
“descendant of Uige”[1]
Woulfe's headword, which he found still in use in east Cork.
Ó hAoilleacháin
An unrelated name, a variant of Ó Faoilleacháin, which Woulfe says was oddly anglicised Higgins around Dungarvan in Co. Waterford.

The name is built on the personal name Uige or Uiginn, usually explained as “disputed: 'knowledge, skill' or 'Viking'”. Woulfe explains uige as knowledge, skill or ingenuity, a fitting name for a family of poets. Wikipedia instead takes Uiginn as a Gaelic borrowing of Old Norse víkingr, 'Viking', and its article on the family describes the older 'knowledge' explanation as superseded.[1][2][6]

Pronunciation

Higgins: HIG-inz

Place

Where the Higginss lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Donegal: 6.5 per 10,000 (110 people) Waterford: 19.1 per 10,000 (157 people) Dublin: 13.7 per 10,000 (659 people) Kilkenny: 3.5 per 10,000 (26 people) Carlow: 7.2 per 10,000 (26 people) Limerick: 15.2 per 10,000 (218 people) Louth: 7.1 per 10,000 (45 people) Tipperary: 6.9 per 10,000 (105 people) Roscommon: 68.8 per 10,000 (647 people) Meath: 12 per 10,000 (78 people) Wicklow: 11.7 per 10,000 (71 people) Cavan: 20.6 per 10,000 (188 people) Cork: 19.1 per 10,000 (750 people) Clare: 9.6 per 10,000 (100 people) Galway: 51.6 per 10,000 (941 people) Mayo: 50 per 10,000 (961 people) Sligo: 56 per 10,000 (443 people) Leitrim: 39.2 per 10,000 (247 people) Offaly: 9.3 per 10,000 (53 people) Laois: 15.9 per 10,000 (87 people) Kildare: 27.5 per 10,000 (184 people) Kerry: 10.1 per 10,000 (162 people) Monaghan: 4.5 per 10,000 (32 people) Wexford: 10.3 per 10,000 (105 people) Longford: 32.4 per 10,000 (142 people) Westmeath: 15.9 per 10,000 (96 people) Tyrone: 6 per 10,000 (85 people) Antrim: 9.1 per 10,000 (437 people) Armagh: 3.7 per 10,000 (44 people) Fermanagh: 10.7 per 10,000 (65 people) Londonderry: 14.8 per 10,000 (207 people) Down: 7.9 per 10,000 (241 people)
fewerup to 69 per 10,000

Share of each county's census population. 1926 covers the 26 counties of the Irish Free State only.

Highest concentration · 1911

Roscommon

69 per 10,000

647 Higginss · 3.92× the national share

Highest share, 1911

  1. Roscommon 69
  2. Sligo 56
  3. Galway 52
  4. Mayo 50
  5. Leitrim 39
  6. Longford 32
  7. Kildare 28
  8. Cavan 21

Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.

County figures as a table
County190119111926Per 10k 1901Per 10k 1911Per 10k 1926
Antrim388437—99—
Armagh4444—44—
Carlow312620876
Cavan168188174172121
Clare11910096111010
Cork738750712181920
Donegal8311083575
Down231241—88—
Dublin582659817131416
Fermanagh8065—1211—
Galway992941861525251
Kerry157162148101010
Kildare215184201352835
Kilkenny312636445
Laois1328796231619
Leitrim266247222383939
Limerick178218210121515
Londonderry183207—1315—
Longford176142126383232
Louth454558779
Mayo974961843495049
Meath1357882191213
Monaghan5832638510
Offaly75536312912
Roscommon671647547676966
Sligo410443449515663
Tipperary107105111778
Tyrone8585—66—
Waterford148157140171918
Westmeath10096103161618
Wexford971059991010
Wicklow727167121212

Local strongholds in 1911

District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where Higginss made up the largest share of the population. In Scregg, Co. Galway, about one resident in 9 was a Higgins.

DEDCountyHigginssShare
ScreggGalway49 11.2%
CattanLeitrim48 5.4%
MantuaRoscommon34 5.4%
BallynoeCork37 4.8%
ClaretuamGalway34 4.8%
Aughagower, SouthMayo18 4.6%
KilladoonSligo39 4.5%
KilmacumseyRoscommon33 4.1%

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Higgins lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

Ó hUiginn of Westmeath

the midlands, in present Co. Westmeath · Westmeath

Woulfe and Wikipedia both describe the family as a branch of the southern Uí Néill whose original home was in the Irish midlands. Burke records a funeral entry for Teige O'Higgin of Kilbeg in Co. Westmeath, who died in 1633, showing that a branch remained there.[1][3][7]

Ó hUiginn of Sligo, the bardic family

Dooghorne and Achonry in Leyny, Kilmacteige, and Ballynary on Lough Arrow · Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway

The senior branch moved west into Connacht, where it held lands in Sligo under patrons such as O'Conor Sligo, O'Hara and MacDonagh. Its members were hereditary poets to many Gaelic and Anglo-Irish lords, and Woulfe says they kept large estates in Achonry and Kilmacteige until the Cromwellian confiscations. The family also held land in Mayo, Roscommon and Galway.[1][3][6][8]

Higgins of Dungarvan (Ó hAoilleacháin)

around Dungarvan · Waterford

Woulfe notes that Ó hAoilleacháin, a form of Ó Faoilleacháin that had lost its initial F, was anglicised Higgins near Dungarvan. These Higginses are unrelated to the bardic family.[9]

The name over time

History

A name with two explanations

Irish Higginses descend from the Ó hUiginn family, but the meaning of the name is disputed. Woulfe connected it with uige, which he glossed as knowledge, skill or ingenuity, an attractive reading for a dynasty of poets. Wikipedia's articles take the root to be Uiginn, a Gaelic adaptation of Old Norse víkingr, 'Viking', and its article on the O'Higgins family presents that as the view of more recent scholars. In England, by contrast, Higgins is an unrelated name built from Hig and Hicke, pet forms of Hugh and Richard.[1][2][6]

From the midlands to Sligo

The family belonged to the southern Uí Néill and began in the Irish midlands, in what is now Westmeath. By the 12th century, according to Wikipedia, the senior line had moved into Connacht, where the O'Conors granted it land in Sligo. Branches settled at Dooghorne and Monteige in Leyny, under the O'Haras, and at Ballynary on the shore of Lough Arrow, under the MacDonaghs. Woulfe adds that the Sligo branch held large estates in the parishes of Achonry and Kilmacteige.[3][6][1][10]

Poets to the Gaelic lords

The Ó hUiginn were among the leading learned families of late medieval Ireland, and Woulfe notes that the Annals of the Four Masters name eleven of them as poets or teachers of poetry. Tadhg Mór, who died in 1315, is the earliest well-known poet of the line. Tadg Óg, who died in 1448, kept a bardic school at Kilconla in Co. Galway and addressed poems to lords from O'Donnell to O'Neill. Philip Bocht, a Franciscan who died in 1487, wrote only religious verse and in 1571 became the first Irish poet to appear in print in Gaelic type.[1][11][12][13][3]

Tadhg Dall and his brother the archbishop

The best-known of the poets is Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, who held land at Dooghorne in Achonry and Coolrecuil in Kilmacteige and wrote for many of the most powerful lords of his day. His verse is preoccupied with the threat England posed to Gaelic Ireland. He died violently in 1591, apparently at the hands of members of the Ó hEadhra (O'Hara) family whom he had satirised. His brother Maol Muire, a Franciscan, was appointed Archbishop of Tuam in 1586 and died at Antwerp in 1590.[8][14]

Ballynary to Chile

Ballynary was the O'Higgins family seat until 1654, when Cromwellian confiscation forced them out. The Ballynary line moved to Summerhill in Co. Meath and worked as tenants there. Ambrose O'Higgins, born at Ballynary around 1720, went to Spain in 1751 and served the Spanish Crown in South America, becoming governor of Chile in 1788 and Viceroy of Peru in 1796. Burke records arms allowed to him in 1788 as a great-grandson of Shane Duff O'Higgins of Ballynary. His son Bernardo O'Higgins, born at Chillán in 1778, led Chile's struggle for independence.[10][6][15][16][7]

Places linked to the name

  • Ballynary (Baile an Fharaidh), Co. Sligo — Townland on Lough Arrow, the O'Higgins seat until 1654 and birthplace of Ambrose O'Higgins.[10][15]
  • Achonry (Achadh Conaire), Co. Sligo — Parish where the Ó hUiginn held land; Tadhg Dall's estate at Dooghorne lay here.[1][8]
  • Kilmacteige (Cill Mhic Thaidhg), Co. Sligo — Parish of Ó hUiginn estates; Tadhg Dall died at Coolrecuil here in 1591.[1][8]
  • Kilconla, Co. Galway — Site of Tadg Óg Ó hUiginn's bardic school, still running in 1574.[12]
  • Summerhill (Cnoc an Línsigh), Co. Meath — Where the Ballynary O'Higgins family lived as tenants after the Cromwellian confiscations.[6][15]

Everyday lives

The Higginss in the census

Who the Higginss were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

Higginss All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Higgins bar

Religion, 1911

Catholic +19.6 points vs Ireland
Higginss 93.2%
All of Ireland 73.6%
Church of Ireland −8.4 points vs Ireland
Higginss 4.8%
All of Ireland 13.2%
Presbyterian −8.7 points vs Ireland
Higginss 1.4%
All of Ireland 10.1%
Methodist & other −2.4 points vs Ireland
Higginss 0.7%
All of Ireland 3.1%

Irish language

Spoke Irish, 1901 +8.2 points vs Ireland
Higginss 23.5%
All of Ireland 15.3%
Spoke Irish, 1911 +7.5 points vs Ireland
Higginss 21.0%
All of Ireland 13.5%
Spoke Irish, 1926 · 26 counties +1.3 points vs Ireland
Higginss 14.8%
All of Ireland 13.5%

67 Higginss spoke Irish only in 1901.

Reading & writing

Could read and write, 1901 · aged 15+ −2.5 points vs Ireland
Higginss 77.9%
All of Ireland 80.4%
Could read and write, 1911 · aged 15+ −2.2 points vs Ireland
Higginss 83.6%
All of Ireland 85.8%

Family life, 1911

Household size · 1,618 households about the same as Ireland
Higginss 4.78
All of Ireland 4.83
Children born per mother · women 45–59 higher than Ireland
Higginss 6.52
All of Ireland 6.46
Children still living about the same as Ireland
Higginss 79.7%
All of Ireland 79.8%

Commonest occupations

Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.

Farmer1,684
Farmer's son775
Farmer's daughter456
General labourer219
Agricultural labourer199
Labourer197
House keeper185
Farm labourer143
Farmer's wife141
Farm servant133

Born outside Ireland

2.4% of Higginss in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.

England131
Scotland28
United States15
India5
Canada1
Australia & NZ1

Median age: 23 in 1901, 25 in 1911.

Given names

First names among the Higginss

Men and boys

  1. John1,620
  2. Patrick1,271
  3. Michael988
  4. Thomas982
  5. James918
  6. William467
  7. Martin275
  8. Peter227
  9. Joseph191
  10. Edward184

Women and girls

  1. Mary1,950
  2. Bridget1,023
  3. Margaret599
  4. Ellen493
  5. Catherine419
  6. Kate412
  7. Annie400
  8. Anne268
  9. Maggie227
  10. Elizabeth211

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, Michael, Thomas, James; Mary, Bridget, Margaret, Annie, Ellen.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Spelling190119111926Records
Higgins7,7577,6836,347Search
O'Higgins142980Search

Related forms

  • O'Higgins — The form keeping the O prefix. Wikipedia notes that some senior branches retained it, and others readopted it, as Thomas F. O'Higgins (born Higgins) did.[1][6][17]
  • O'Higgin, Higgens — Older spellings recorded by Woulfe.[1]
  • O'Higgan, O'Higan — English forms that Woulfe linked to an older Irish spelling, Ó hUigeann.[1]
  • Higginson — A different surname. Woulfe derives the Irish Mac Huigín (Higginson) from a diminutive of Hugh, and Burke records Higginson families at Lisburn in Co. Antrim.[18][7]

Diaspora

The Higginss abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

SpellingPeopleUS rank
Higgins79,803400th
O'Higgins134127494th

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a Higgins coat of arms?

Arms were granted to particular families, so there is no single Higgins crest. Burke records arms for the O'Higgin sept of Connacht and Westmeath: silver, sprinkled with black drops, with a black band bearing three silver towers, and a tower with a demi-griffin holding a sword as crest. He gives the same arms, with the motto 'Pro patria', for the O'Higgins of Ballynary, allowed in 1788 to Ambrose O'Higgins in Chile. English Higgins families bore unrelated arms.[7]

Websites selling a single “Higgins family crest” are selling a design, not an inheritance. Arms in Ireland belonged to individuals and their heirs, and the Chief Herald of Ireland still grants arms that way today.

People

Notable people named Higgins

  • Tadhg Mór Ó hUiginn (died 1315)
    Early poet of the Connacht bardic family of Ó hUiginn.
  • Tadg Óg Ó hUiginn (c. 1370–1448)
    Master poet who kept a bardic school at Kilconla, Co. Galway.
  • Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (c. 1550–1591)
    Sligo poet, the best-known of the family, murdered after satirising the O'Haras.
  • Ambrosio O'Higgins (c. 1720–1801)
    Sligo-born Spanish administrator, governor of Chile and Viceroy of Peru.
  • Bernardo O'Higgins (1778–1842)
    Chilean independence leader and Supreme Director of Chile from 1817 to 1823.
  • Brian O'Higgins (1882–1963)
    Republican writer and poet, 'Brian na Banban', and president of Sinn Féin 1931–33.
  • Thomas F. O'Higgins (1890–1953)
    Fine Gael doctor and politician, Minister for Defence from 1948 to 1951.
  • Kevin O'Higgins (1892–1927)
    Free State Minister for Justice, assassinated by IRA members in 1927.
  • Marguerite Higgins (1920–1966)
    American war correspondent and the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for foreign reporting.
  • Aidan Higgins (1927–2015)
    Irish novelist and short-story writer, author of Langrishe, Go Down.
  • Michael D. Higgins (born 1941)
    Poet, broadcaster and Labour politician; President of Ireland from 2011 to 2025.
  • Alex Higgins (1949–2010)
    Northern Irish snooker player nicknamed 'the Hurricane', twice world champion.

Questions

Questions about the Higgins name

Is Higgins an Irish surname?

Usually, yes. In Ireland Higgins and O'Higgins are English forms of Ó hUiginn, the name of a family of the southern Uí Néill who became one of the great bardic families of Connacht. Higgins is also an English surname of separate origin, so a family with English roots may have nothing to do with the Irish poets.[1][3][2]

What is Higgins in Irish?

The usual Irish form is Ó hUiginn, with Ó hUigín and Ó hUigínn as variants; President Michael D. Higgins is Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn. Woulfe also records the older Ó hUige, still in use in east Cork in his day. Around Dungarvan the name can instead stand for Ó hAoilleacháin.[1][5][9]

What does the name Higgins mean?

Sources disagree. Woulfe explained the Irish name as 'descendant of Uige', taking uige to mean knowledge, skill or ingenuity. Wikipedia's articles derive it instead from Uiginn, a Gaelic form of the Old Norse word for a Viking. The English surname Higgins has a different meaning again, 'son of Hig' or 'son of Hicke', from pet forms of Hugh and Richard.[1][2][6]

Is Higgins Irish or English?

It can be either. Most Irish Higginses descend from the Ó hUiginn family of Westmeath and Sligo. In England the same spelling grew up independently from Hig and Hicke, pet forms of Hugh and Richard. Burke's armory records separate English Higgins families in places such as Herefordshire and London.[1][2][7]

Are the O'Higgins of Chile Irish?

Yes, by descent. Ambrose O'Higgins was born at Ballynary in Co. Sligo, the family's ancestral seat, around 1720, and rose in Spanish service to govern Chile and then Peru. His son Bernardo O'Higgins, born in Chile in 1778, became one of the founders of the independent Chilean state.[15][16][10]

Is there a Higgins family crest or coat of arms?

Not one for every Higgins. Burke records arms for the O'Higgin sept of Connacht and Westmeath, with three silver towers on a black band, and the same arms with the motto 'Pro patria' for the O'Higgins of Ballynary. English Higgins families had unrelated arms. Each coat belonged to a particular family line.[7]

Where in Ireland is the Higgins surname most common?

In the 1911 census the largest numbers of Higginss lived in Mayo (961), Galway (941), Cork (750). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Roscommon (69 per 10,000), Sligo (56 per 10,000), Galway (52 per 10,000).

How common was the Higgins surname in Ireland?

7,712 people were recorded as Higgins or O'Higgins in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 85th most common surname. That is roughly 0.2% of the population, or 1 person in 568.

Looking for a Higgins ancestor?

Search every Higgins household in the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, with free images of the original forms.

Search records on irishcensus.com

Evidence

Sources

  1. Patrick Woulfe, Ó hUige, Ó hUigín, Ó hUiginn, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  2. Wikipedia, Higgins (surname) (2026)
  3. Wikipedia, Ó hUiginn (2026)
  4. Wikipedia, Kevin O'Higgins (2026)
  5. Wikipedia, Michael D. Higgins (2026)
  6. Wikipedia, O'Higgins family (2026)
  7. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'O'Higgin (a Sept located in Connaught)', 'O'Higgins (Ballynary, co. Sligo, and Spain)', 'Higgins' and 'Higginson'.
  8. Wikipedia, Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (2026)
  9. Patrick Woulfe, Ó hAoilleacháin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  10. Wikipedia, Ballynary (2026)
  11. Wikipedia, Tadhg Mór Ó hUiginn (2026)
  12. Wikipedia, Tadg Óg Ó hUiginn (2026)
  13. Wikipedia, Philip Bocht Ó hUiginn (2026)
  14. Wikipedia, Maol Muire Ó hÚigínn (2026)
  15. Wikipedia, Ambrosio O'Higgins, 1st Marquess of Osorno (2026)
  16. Wikipedia, Bernardo O'Higgins (2026)
  17. Wikipedia, Thomas F. O'Higgins (2026)
  18. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Huigín, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  19. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.
  20. Irish forms cross-checked against Gaois surname data (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU).

How we compile these figures: methodology.