116,444 Global Curry Family Members

Curry Family History

Curry is a surname originating distinctly in three countries: Ireland, Scotland and England

Ó Comhraidhe is the name of two unrelated septs: viz. of Thomond (mostly Clare with adjacent areas of Limerick and Tipperary) and Moygoish (Westmeath). The personal name is of uncertain meaning.

Ó Corra, and variant Ó Corraidh, are cited by Woulfe (Dublin, 1923) the name of families in Ulster, the root quoted by Woulfe is 'corra'- 'spear'.

Other names have been suggested also by Woulfe: Mac Mhuireadhaigh (Antrim) and Mac Gothfhradha.

The 1850s 'Valuation' of property by Richard Griffith list most Currys in counties Antrim (118), Derry (50) and Fermanagh (48).

The 1890 birth figures for Curry (Matheson, 1909) show 48 in Ulster, 15 in Leinster, 8 in Munster and 4 in Connacht.

Currie, and variant Curry, is Scottish, from a South-West Scotland place name with Gaelic element 'coire' - 'cauldron', a common place name element, or alternatively Gaelic 'currach' - 'bog' or 'fen'. There is a place name Corrie in Dumfriesshire.

A branch of the clan MacDonald was known as Mac Mhuirich, pronounced 'Mac-Ourie', became anglicised as Currie. Either of these Scottish origins would have been carried to Ulster during the Jacobean plantation, and after.

Curry is also a well established Somerset surname from Curry Mallet or Curry Rivel, both named after the river Curry on which they stand, the meaning of which is obscure, from a Celtic or, more likely, an aboriginal name . H. B. Guppy quotes Somerset as the home of this ancient English surname in 'Homes of Family Names in Great Britain' (1890).