TOOMEY
Toomey is a surname of Gaelic origin, originally Irish, and is an anglicised form of the patronymic Ó Tuama which means “descendant of Tuama.” The personal name Tuama is derived from the Irish word tuaim, meaning a hill or a small mountain, and it is believed that the name originally referred to a family that lived near or was associated with a particular mound or hill. The surname is most closely identified with County Cork, where it has long been common.
The earliest recorded spelling that is directly recognisable as a Toomey form is Saray Tomye, dated 27 October 1564 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Other early spellings that appear in contemporary records include O'Twomey, Twomey, Toomey, Twoomy and Towmey. In the 1659 census of the barony of Barretts, County Cork, the surname appears as the second most frequent, after Murphy.
The surname has been shown to have existed in a variety of forms, with the prefix O' occurring mainly when the name was recorded in a Gaelic context. In the 1797 marriage register of the Roman Catholic Church at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, the name appears as Johannes Toomey and his bride as Helena Huggin, indicating that bears of the name were present in London at that time. In Ireland, the name is now almost exclusively written Toomey, except in County Cork where the form Twomey remains common.
The distribution of the surname remained heavily concentrated in the south‑west of the island. Historical records show that it was found in Kerry, Tipperary and Offaly from the sixteenth century onward. In recent decades the name has migrated abroad; it is the 2,134th most common surname in the United States according to 2020 data, and it is also represented in Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. The global presence of the name reflects the wider Irish diaspora.
Notable individuals bearing the surname include the Gaelic poet Sean O'Tuama (1706–1775), a celebrated author of the Maigue school of poetry, and contemporary singers Brendan Toomey and Shane Toomey. These figures illustrate the continuing cultural significance of the name within the Irish tradition and beyond.
The surname Toomey remains an important marker of familial and geographic heritage in Ireland, particularly in County Cork. Its persistence from the sixteenth century to the present day, its widespread diaspora, and its association with notable cultural figures demonstrate the lasting legacy of this Gaelic name within the broader tapestry of Irish history and identity.
Typical given names associated with the Toomey surname
Male
- Christopher
- Daniel
- David
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Simon
Female
- Ann
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Jacqueline
- Jessica
- Karen
- Margaret
- Mary
- Nicola
- Patricia
- Penny
- Sarah
- Susan
- Victoria
Similar and related surnames
- Toumey
- Thomey
- Toom
- Tomey
- Toomes
- Tooms
- Tooma
- Towmey
- Toomy
- Toome
- Tooney
- Toomay
- Damay
- Damey
- Demay
- Demayo
- Demey
- Demmy
- Demooy
- Demouy
- Demoy
- Demoya
- Demy
- Dimey
- Dimmey
- Domey
- Dommay
- Dommey
- Dommy
- Dowmay
- Dumay
- Dumey
- Tamayo
- Tamiya
- Tamy
- Tiamiyu
- Timey
- Timmay
- Timmey
- Timmy
- Tomay
- Tommey
- Tommy
- Tomy
- Toombe
- Toumi
- Tumay
- Tumey
- Tummey
- Tummy
- Tuomey
- Tuomy
- Twomey
- Twomy
- Twoomey
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Toomey in...
Braille
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Morse
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There are approximately 1,603 people named Toomey in the UK. That makes it roughly the 5,076th most common surname in Britain. Around 25 in a million people in Britain are named Toomey.
Origin: Celtic
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Ireland
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: Gaelic
Famous people named Toomey
- Milly Toomey - Singer and rapper
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.