Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : one of the very few Irish surnames derived from a place name, namely Athy in county Kildare, Gaelic Áth í ‘ford of the yew tree’. This was adopted by Norman settlers in Ireland in the form de Athy, which was re-Gaelicized as Ataoi and borne by one of the ‘tribes of Galway’, who first settled in Co. Kildare about 1300.
- English : variant spelling of Athey.