Heron Family History

English and French (Héron): nickname for a tall, thin person resembling a heron, Middle English heiroun, heyron (Old French hairon, of Germanic origin). English: habitational name from Harome in North Yorkshire, named with Old English harum, dative plural of hær ‘rock’, ‘stone’. This surname has evidently become confused with 1. Irish: reduced form of O’Heron, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUidhrín ‘descendant of Uidhrín’, a personal name from a diminutive of odhar ‘dun’, ‘swarthy’. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEaráin (see Haren). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chiaráin ‘son of the servant of (Saint) Ciarán’ (see Kieran).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press