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Last name origins & meanings:
- English and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of
the elements haim, heim ‘home’ + rīc ‘power’,
‘ruler’, introduced to England by the Normans in the form
Henri. During the Middle Ages this name became enormously
popular in England and was borne by eight kings. Continental forms of
the personal name were equally popular throughout Europe (German
Heinrich, French Henri, Italian Enrico and
Arrigo, Czech Jindřich, etc.). As an American family
name, the English form Henry has absorbed patronymics and many
other derivatives of this ancient name in continental European
languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) In the period in
which the majority of English surnames were formed, a common English
vernacular form of the name was Harry, hence the surnames
Harris (southern) and Harrison (northern). Official
documents of the period normally used the Latinized form
Henricus. In medieval times, English Henry absorbed an
originally distinct Old English personal name that had hagan
‘hawthorn’. Compare Hain 2 as its first element, and there has
also been confusion with Amery.
- Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hInnéirghe ‘descendant of
Innéirghe’, a byname based on éirghe
‘arising’.
- Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Éinrí
or Mac Einri, patronymics from the personal names
Éinrí, Einri, Irish forms of Henry. It is
also found as a variant of McEnery.
- Jewish (American): Americanized form of various like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish names.
- A bearer of the name from the Touraine region of France is
documented in Quebec city in 1667. Another (also called
<xref>Laforge</xref>), from the Champagne region, is documented in Montreal
in 1710. Other secondary surnames include Berranger,
Labori, <xref>Livernois</xref>, Madou.
This name appears in the following lists:
Child Stars,
Composers,
Cowboys and Cowgirls,
First Ladies,
Literary Characters,
Poets,
Saints,
Pioneers/Explorers,
Presidents' Kids,
Silver Screen,
U.S. Presidents
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