Fox in Ireland is the English translation of sionnach, the Irish word for a fox, and its best-known Irish bearers are the Ó Catharnaigh of the midlands, chiefs of Teffia whose head was styled An Sionnach, the Fox. Every Fox design is gathered in our Fox Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Fox translates the Gaelic byname Sionnach. In the midlands it replaced the surname Ó Catharnaigh, a family descended from Maine, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who ruled Teffia and later the barony of Kilcoursey in County Offaly. Fox also translates Ó Sionnaigh of west Cork and Sligo and the rare Mac an tSionnaigh, and it is a common English surname too.
What Does the Fox Surname Mean?
The midland family’s real surname was Ó Catharnaigh, “descendant of Catharnach,” a personal name meaning warlike. According to Rev. Patrick Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames, the family took a second name from the byname of an eleventh-century ancestor, Catharnach Sionnach, “the fox,” who was slain in 1084. Woulfe’s entry for Sionnach calls it an epithet that supplanted the real surname, rendered in English as Shinnagh and Shinnock and, by translation, Fox or Foxe. Later genealogists name that ancestor Tadhg Ó Catharnaigh, killed in battle in the same year; John Grenham’s summary says he earned the name for his cunning.
That makes Fox one of the few Irish names whose English form is a straight translation of the Irish word rather than an imitation of its sound. O’Caharney and Carney, the phonetic forms of Ó Catharnaigh, survived beside it, but in the midlands the family’s identity settled on the Fox.
Who Were the Foxes of Teffia?
Woulfe describes the Ó Catharnaigh as an old Meath family, descended from Maine, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, and “originally chiefs of all Teffia,” the midland territory of Longford and Westmeath. Their patrimony was later narrowed to Muintir Thadhgáin, now the barony of Kilcoursey in County Offaly, on the Westmeath border around Clara. The head of the family was known by the title an Sionnach, or The Fox.
The lordship kept its Gaelic character into the sixteenth century. On 20 August 1526 Breasal, the Fox, chief of Muintir Thadhgáin, made a written covenant with Mageoghegan, chief of neighboring Cenél Fiachach (Kineleaghe). By 1600 Elizabethan clerks recorded the barony as “Kilcourcie commonly called Mounterhagan or the Fox’s Country,” a reference preserved on logainm.ie. The family lost much of its property after the rising of 1641, and a branch settled at Foxhall in County Longford traced its descent from Tadhg Sionnach.
Is Fox Always an Irish Name?
No. Fox is also a common English surname, based on a nickname, and a significant number of Irish Foxes descend from English settlers rather than from a Gaelic family. Among Gaelic names, Fox translates three separate sources. Besides the Ó Catharnaigh of Teffia, Woulfe records Ó Sionnaigh as the name of a family of Corca Laoighdhe in southwest Cork and of a Sligo family, “now often translated Fox,” with older forms such as Shinnick and Shunny. He also lists Mac an tSionnaigh, “son of the fox,” a rare and scattered name anglicized as M’Eteny, MacAshinah and Tinney; Mac Giolla-Domhnaigh places that family in south Tyrone.
Where Are Fox Families Found in Ireland?
Fox is a very numerous Irish name, found in every province and strongest in Ulster, where English, Scottish and Mac an tSionnaigh lines all meet. Grenham counts 1,441 Fox households in Griffith’s Valuation of the mid-nineteenth century and 1,195 heads of household in the 1901 census. The midland Foxes remain the historic Gaelic heart of the name, from Kilcoursey and Clara in north Offaly into Westmeath and Longford.
How Can I Research Fox Family History?
- IrishGenealogy.ie: civil birth, marriage and death records, plus church registers for several dioceses.
- National Archives of Ireland 1901 and 1911 census: search Fox by county and compare Offaly, Westmeath and Longford households.
- Griffith’s Valuation: mid-nineteenth-century landholders, useful for pinning a family to a townland.
- National Library of Ireland Catholic parish registers: baptisms and marriages, many before civil registration began.
- PRONI: for Fox and Tinney families in Tyrone and the other Ulster counties.
- logainm.ie: townland names and historic spellings for Kilcoursey and the surrounding baronies.
Check for Sionnach, Shinnagh, Caharney and Carney alongside Fox in older records, since clerks wrote the name in whichever form the family gave them.
Notable Irish Bearers of the Fox Name
- Breasal, the Fox (fl. 1526), chief of Muintir Thadhgáin, whose written covenant with Mageoghegan of Kineleaghe still survives.
- Kathleen Fox (1880–1963), born at Glenageary, County Dublin, a pupil of William Orpen, enamelist, stained-glass artist and painter of The Arrest (1916), showing Constance Markievicz’s surrender at the Royal College of Surgeons.
- Billy Fox (1939–1974), a Monaghan farmer elected to Dáil Éireann for Fine Gael in 1969 and later a senator, killed in March 1974; he was the only member of the Oireachtas killed during the Troubles.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Fox Name
What is Fox in Irish?
The Irish word is sionnach. The midland Foxes were Ó Catharnaigh, and their chief was An Sionnach; in west Cork and Sligo the name is Ó Sionnaigh, and in Ulster Mac an tSionnaigh.
Which county is the Fox family from?
The Gaelic Foxes belong to the Irish midlands: Teffia in Longford and Westmeath, and then Kilcoursey in County Offaly. Today the name is spread across Ireland and is most common in Ulster.
Are Fox and Carney related?
In the midlands they can be. Both come from Ó Catharnaigh: Carney keeps the sound of the Irish, while Fox translates the family’s byname. Most Carneys and Kearneys elsewhere in Ireland belong to unrelated families.
Is Fox an Irish or English surname?
Both. It is an English nickname surname and an Irish translation of Sionnach. A family’s own records, parish and townland will show which story is theirs.
What was the Fox’s Country?
It was the name used in Elizabethan records for Muintir Thadhgáin, the lordship of the Fox chiefs, now the barony of Kilcoursey in County Offaly.
Bring the Teffia story home with the Fox family crest on the Irish National Tartan in our Fox Irish family gifts collection, from woven blankets and mugs to garden flags and Christmas ornaments.