Tuohy Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Tuohy Family History

Tuohy Family History

The Tuohy ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Many different spelling variations of the same name can be traced back to a single original root. Also, when a bearer of a name emigrated from Ireland it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books upon arrival at their new location. Some names have dozens of spelling variations. Some Surnames were also altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically, by their sound, and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another. This was especially so in Ireland where most Gaelic names were 'anglicized' at some stage.

Variants of the name Tuohy include Toohey, O'Tuohy, Tuohey, Twohig, O'Towey, Towey, Tuffy, Tookey and Tuthill. The name in Irish is O'Tuathaigh, and they were a branch of the Ui Maine, being seated at Aughrim, County Galway and the modern form of the name is Tookey. This name is to be found, for the most part, in Clare and south-east Galway. It is in Tipperary that the name also appears frequently in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, in the Hearth Money Rolls and court cases. We begin to find the form Twohig in the middle of the sixteenth century in quite large numbers in County Cork. The form Tuohy is especially numerous in County Roscommon and there they had a small territory lying in the parishes of Moygawnagh and Kilfian, the sept being a branch of the Hy Fiachrach.The Tuohy family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Tuohy descendants.