Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEodhusa ‘descendant of Eodhus’; this was the name of a bardic family associated with the Maguires of Fermanagh, also Anglicized as Oswell, Oswald.
  • English (of Norman origin) : habitational name from Houssaye in Seine-Maritime, so called from a collective noun from Old French hous ‘holly’.
  • English : nickname for a woman who was mistress of her own household, from Middle English husewif (a compound of Old English hūs ‘house’ + wīf ‘woman’). It was not until the 17th century that this word acquired pejorative connotations.