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Surname Etymology and Meaning of HEARN

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEachthighearna ‘descendant of Eachthighearna’, a personal name meaning ‘lord of horses’, from each ‘horse’ + tighearna ‘master’, ‘lord’. This name is most common in southwestern Ireland.
2. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUidhrín (see Herron).
3. English: variant of Heron 1.
4. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a bend in a river or in a recess in a hill, both of which are meanings of Middle English herne (Old English hyrne). It may also be a habitational name from any of the various places, such as Herne in Kent and Hurn in Dorset, which are named with the Old English word. Its exact original sense and its etymology are not clear; it may be a derivative of horn ‘horn’.
5. English: habitational name from Herne in Bedfordshire, so called from the dative plural (originally used after a preposition) of Old English hær ‘stone’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)