Hare Family History

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍr or Ó hÉir ‘descendant of Ír’ a personal name possibly meaning ‘long-lasting’ borne by a legendary ancestor of the north of Ireland. This name was always monosyllabic. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAichir ‘descendant of Aichear’ a personal name derived from the epithet aichear ‘fierce sharp’. The personal name on which this surname is based was originally disyllabic.

Although the Anglicized forms O'Hehir and Hehir still exist particularly in Ireland, pronunciation in later northern Irish has caused Ó hAichir to fall together with another surname based on a one-syllable personal name as in sense 1 above.

English: nickname from Middle English hare, harr, here ‘hare’ (Old English hara sometimes influenced by Old Norse heri). It may have denoted someone who could run fast or was timorous or who bore some similarity to a hare in appearance such as bulging eyes.

English: variant of Ayre with prosthetic H-. English: topographic name for someone who lived on stony ground (Old English hær ‘rock heap of stones tumulus’).

English: possibly a variant of Hair. French: nickname for a huntsman from a medieval French call used to urge on the hounds or in the form Haré, from the past participle of the verb harer ‘to excite stir up (hounds in pursuit of a quarry)’. Altered form of German Harr.