FEE
The surname Fee is of Irish origin and derives from the Gaelic patronymic form Ó Fiadh or Ó Fiaich, meaning “descendant of Fiadh” or “descendant of Fiaich”. The personal names Fiadh and Fiaich were used in early Gaelic society and are commonly understood to refer either to a deer or to a warrior, thereby associating the surname with hunting or martial prowess.
In its early recordings, the name appears in a variety of spellings. Common forms include O'Fee, O'Fay, Fee, Fay and Foy. Diminutive or extended variants such as Fagan, Fegan, Feehan and Feighan are also found. The surname was sometimes recorded as O'Faich before the tenth century; this form was interpreted as meaning “the male descendant of the Raven”, with Raven being an early personal name used as an honourific nickname for the first chief of a clan.
The name is historically linked to the province of Ulster, particularly County Armagh and at times County Fermanagh. The Annals of the Four Masters identify members of the O'Fee kin as hereditary church administrators, or erenaghs, as far back as 1480. The 1659 Census of Ireland records O'Fee as the principal surname in a local barony, underscoring the prominence of the family in that area during the seventeenth century. The most celebrated bearer of the name was Cardinal Thomas O'Fiach, better known as Tom Fee; he served as Archbishop of Armagh and President of Maynooth College in Dublin until his death in 1926.
The Gaelic word fiach translates into English as “raven”. In Celtic culture, the raven is often associated with wisdom and foreseeing, and the surname may therefore indicate either the presence of a raven as a familial emblem or reference an ancestor with dark hair or complexion reminiscent of the bird. The surname Fee is frequently found in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the United States, with a notable concentration in states that received large numbers of Irish immigrants during the Great Famine of the nineteenth century.
English variations of the name sometimes include Fey, Fie, Phy, as well as the Scottish Gaelic forms McFee and MacFee, the latter incorporating the prefix Mac meaning “son of”. Despite this multiplicity of spellings, each version retains the same cultural heritage and traces back to the original Gaelic patronymic.
In addition to its Irish roots, the Form Fee can also be encountered as an Anglicised derivative of the Old English word feoh, meaning “cattle” or “goods”. In those contexts it suggests a historical connection with cattle farming or trading, although this derivation is distinct from the Gaelic line and is considered independent.
Typical given names associated with the Fee surname
Male
- Andrew
- David
- James
- John
- Joseph
- Michael
- Peter
- Robert
- Stephen
- Thomas
- William
Female
- Ann
- Anne
- Catherine
- Elizabeth
- Joanne
- Linda
- Lorraine
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Natalie
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
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There are approximately 1,314 people named Fee in the UK. That makes it roughly the 5,957th most common surname in Britain. Around 20 in a million people in Britain are named Fee.
Origin: Celtic
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Ireland
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: Gaelic
Famous people named Fee
- Fra Fee - Actor, singer
- Mary Fee - Scottish politician
- Francis Fee - Irish cricketer
- Greg Fee - Football player
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.