Hammond

An Irish surname of Donegal. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 69,515 people, the 481st most common surname in the country.

Hammond is the anglicised form of three distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.

Hámonn, son of Heahmund (an Anglo-Saxon personal name, Old Norse Hamundr, a name in use among the Danes of Dublin before the Anglo-Norman invasion). This family stood in Co. Limerick, Co. Louth, and Co. Meath.

Hamon

Mac Ámoinn, son of Amundr (a Norse personal name)

Where the name comes from

Hámonn is son of Heahmund, an Anglo-Saxon personal name, the Old Norse Hamundr, and it was in use among the Danes of Dublin before the Anglo-Norman invasion. About 1174 Hamund, son of Torkill, was granted Censale and the lands next to it on behalf of King Henry II, which he had held before the arrival of the English. Families named Hammond also settled early in Louth, Meath and Limerick.

Hamon is son of Hamo, a common personal name in early Anglo-Irish records; Adam filius Hamonis appears in the Dublin Roll soon after the invasion. It is of quite distinct origin and cannot now be told apart from the first. Mac Ámoinn, son of Amundr, is a third and Norse.

Nocturne, Fanad Head, Co. Donegal
Nocturne, Fanad Head, Co. Donegal

Donegal, photographed

Photographs made in Donegal.

Donegal

Slieve League is about 600 metres from clifftop to sea, one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe. Errigal is the highest mountain in the county at 751 metres, and it's quartzite, so it turns pink in low light. Glenveagh National Park covers about 16,000 hectares behind them.

Fanad Head Lighthouse at dawn with sunrise over Inishowen, Co. Donegal, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxFanad Head at Dawn, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal St. John's Point Lighthouse standing on the headland on a bright spring day with green grass, DonegalSt. John's Point Lighthouse, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Tory Island Lighthouse beam sweeping through hazy night air on both sides of the tower in a long exposure on the Donegal coastNocturne, Tory Island Lighthouse, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Intense double rainbow arching across the sky over green mountains near Glencolmcille in County DonegalRainbow, Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Black and white view of Glengesh Pass with a winding road through rolling hills, Co. Donegal — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxGlengesh Pass, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Black and white panoramic view of Glengesh Pass valley with dramatic clouds, Co. Donegal — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxGlengesh Pass Panoramic, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Sunset light bathing the dramatic sea cliffs of Dun Bhaloir promontory fort on Tory Island off the Donegal coastSunset and Cliffs, Dún Bhaloir, Toraigh, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Aerial photograph of Aranmore lighthouse on cliffs, Co. Donegal, Ireland, fine art photograph by Peter CoxAranmore, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Aerial view of Malin Head at sunset showing Banba's Crown, Ireland's most northerly point, County DonegalMalin Head, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Aerial view of Fanad Head Lighthouse at sunset, Co. Donegal, fine art aerial photograph by Peter CoxFanad Head, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal Mount Errigal, Co. DonegalMount Errigal, Co. Donegal Co. Donegal

All Donegal prints

Notable bearers

Philip Hammond (born 1955), politician.

Richard Hammond (born 1969), writer, journalist, and autobiographer.

Aleqa Hammond (born 1965), politician.

Albert Hammond (born 1944), singer, musician, and composer.

Laurens Hammond (1895-1973), patent inventor and organ builder.

About this page

The counties on this page are where the name was thickest on the ground in Ireland a century and a half ago, not a claim about any one family. Names moved around inside the country as much as they left it. The photographs are mine, made in the counties named.

More Irish surnames: Smith · Brown · Miller · Wilson · Anderson · Thomas · Taylor · Moore · Jackson · Martin · Lee · Thompson

How common the name was

In 1890, 13 births were registered under Hammond in Ireland, most of them in Donegal.

Ulster 9
Munster 3
Leinster 1
Connacht 0
Ireland 13