Hart

An Irish surname of Antrim, Cork, Dublin, and Sligo. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 137,184 people, the 207th most common surname in the country.

Hart 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.

Hart, the hart

Mac Airt, son of Arth

Ó Hairt, descendant of Art (bear, stone, noble). This family stood in Co. Meath and Co. Sligo.

Where the name comes from

Ó hAirt is descendant of Art, which is bear, stone or noble. The family was a Meath one originally seated in the neighbourhood of Tara, dispossessed soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion, after which they settled in the barony (an old land division, several parishes across) of Carbury in Co. Sligo. The name is still very common in Connacht.

There is also a plain Hart that is simply the hart, the deer, and a very rare Mac Airt, son of Arth.

The Giant's Causeway at twilight with wet hexagonal basalt columns stretching to the sea and long exposure blurred waves
The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim

The Hart counties, photographed

Antrim

The Antrim coast road runs about 25 miles between the cliffs and the sea, with nine glens coming down to it. The rock is basalt, the same flow that formed the Giant's Causeway. Scotland is 12 miles off at the narrowest point and visible on a clear day.

The iconic Dark Hedges beech tree tunnel near Armoy in County Antrim with intertwined branches forming a brooding canopyThe Dark Hedges, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim Long exposure of Pan's Rock with its footbridge at dawn on the Antrim Causeway Coast, silky water and blurred clouds, Rathlin Island on the horizonPan's Rock, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim

Cork

Cork is the largest county in Ireland. Three peninsulas run west into the Atlantic: Beara, Sheep's Head and Mizen, with the population thinning the further out you go. My gallery is in Glengarriff at the head of Bantry Bay, so it's the ground I photograph most.

Rugged Atlantic coastline at Allihies, Cork, Ireland, with layered slate cliffs, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxAllihies Coast, Cork Co. Cork Sunset over Dun an Oir ruins and sea stacks on Cape Clear Island, Cork, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxDún an Óir, Cape Clear Island, Cork Co. Cork The Fastnet Lighthouse standing proud on a calm summer evening off West Cork in black and white panoramic viewThe Fastnet Lighthouse, Co. Cork Co. Cork

Dublin

Dublin is a county as well as a city. The bay has Howth at the north end and Killiney Hill at the south, the Muglins are a pair of rocks off Dalkey, and the Dublin Mountains start about half an hour from the city centre.

Moonlight reflecting on the sea near the Muglins lighthouse off Dalkey Island, Dublin, with the Kish light on the horizonThe Muglins by Moonlight II Co. Dublin Long exposure panoramic view of the White Rock swimming platform at Killiney Bay, Dublin, floating in misty high-tide watersThe White Rock, Killiney Bay, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin Heron fishing at dawn on the Dublin coast — fine art wildlife photograph by Peter CoxHeron, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin

Sligo

Benbulben is a limestone plateau with its sides cut away by ice, standing flat-topped over the plain. Knocknarea has a cairn on top, thought to be a passage tomb and never excavated. Strandhill and Mullaghmore get some of the biggest surf in Europe. Yeats is buried at Drumcliffe below Benbulben.

Mullaghmore, Co. SligoMullaghmore, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo Ruined cottage on a blustery day in the Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo, Ireland, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxCottage, Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo Aerial view of a stream winding across a beach to the sea, Co. Sligo, Ireland — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxBeach Detail, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo

All Antrim prints · All Cork prints · All Dublin prints · All Sligo prints

Notable bearers

Kevin Hart (born 1979), actor, writer, and musician.

Joe Hart (born 1987), association football player, cricketer, and pundit.

Melissa Joan Hart (born 1976), actor, singer, and film producer.

Oliver Hart (born 1948), university teacher and economist.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970), writer, journalist, and historian.

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: King · Reynolds · Ford · Hunt · Burke · Banks · May · Hopkins · Leonard · Moran · Thornton · Higgins

How common the name was

In 1890, 122 births were registered under Hart in Ireland, most of them in Antrim, Cork, Dublin, Leitrim, Roscommon, and Sligo.

Connacht 51
Ulster 28
Leinster 27
Munster 16
Ireland 122

Leitrim and Roscommon are the ones I haven't worked in.