Hearn Family History

Irish (Waterford and Kilkenny): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEachthighearna ‘descendant of Eachthighearna’ a personal name meaning ‘lord of horses’ from each ‘horse’ + tighearna ‘master lord’. English: topographic name from Middle English herne hirne or hurne from Old English hyrne ‘nook or corner of land’ (i.e. an out-of-the-way secluded place) or ‘bend of a river’.

The name may also be habitational from Herne (Kent), Hurn (Dorset), or Hirn (Hampshire) with the same etymology as the topographic term. In post-medieval English pronunciation, the three forms have converged and the spellings have become interchangeable.

Hurn may sometimes have been pronounced and spelled the same as the surname Horn. English: habitational name from Herne in Tottington, Bedfordshire so called from the dative plural (originally used after a preposition) of Old English hær ‘stone’, i.e. ‘at the stones’.

English: variant of Herron.