Carey, Cary or Carrey is a surname that has four distinct geographical origins, in order of popularity: Ireland, the English West Country, Wales and France.
[14] Carey occurs as a variant of (de) Carrey in archives in Normandy, Burgundy, Franche-Comté etc., in France[15][16] from habitational names, possibly with the Pre-Celtic element 'car'-'stony/stones'.
The first two entries under 'Carey' in the 'Dictionary of American Family Names' (Oxford, 2003) gives Irish origins;[9] the New York Passengers List (1820–1957) show 2,058 Carey immigrants from Ireland compared with 345 from England.
[19] The Southern Uí Néill sept of Ó Ciardha was dispersed by the end of the 12th century (Woulfe, MacLysaght, et al. op.
Their territory at Carbury was later settled by the De Berminghams, who built the castle on top of the ancient hill settlement.
The Genealogies of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (c 1400) mentions them: 'O Ciarda obtained heavy profit of the land of Cairbre'.
For example, in the Annals of Ulster in 1224 we find 'Mathgamain mac Ceithernaigh h-Ui Ceirín, rí Ciaraidhe Lacha na Nairne, mortuus est'.
[23] Early examples are found in those counties; and these other Carey families would not belong to the well known midland Uí Néill sept of Ó Ciardha.
[26] In King James 11's Irish Army, 1688–90 (v. Williamite War in Ireland) is Thomas Carey (alias Keary in French records), Ensign, Barrett's Regiment, Co Cork.
[33] The Religious Census of 1766 for Co Tipperary has many entries for Car(e)y, all of whom are native 'Papists': e.g. John & Cornelius Cary, Clonoulty; Thomas Keary, Kilfeacle; Daniel Keary, Killea; Laughlin Carey and four other Careys, Cahir; John Carey/Keary, Lattin; Darby plus three other Carys, Soloheadmore etc.
[41] Car(e)y is also a Devonshire name, possibly from the place in Devon on the River Carey, just east of Launceston, recorded as 'Kari' (Pre-Celtic or Celtic language) in the Domesday Book (1086).
[47] Car(e)y is also a surname in Cornwall, for which there are several possible derivations, which must also apply to the adjacent county of Devon : 1) one of several places in Cornwall with the Brythonic element 'car/caer'-'fort/enclosure', such as Kerrow, Cairo (there exist many antique site 'Caer' type names as in 'Caer Kief') – a source also of the Carew surname; 2) a local topographical name from root Pre-Celtic 'kar' viz.
'stone/stony' as in Carey Tor in Bodmin Moor; 3) Car(e)y (river) of St. Giles-in-the-Heath, West Devon; 4) Carew of Pembrokeshire (also from root 'caer'-'fort') the Cambro-Norman surname.
[51] However, an alternative origin for some families of West Country Car(e)y may be, as with the Careys of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, Norman French or Breton.
As early as 1150–61 one Geoffrey de Kari is mentioned in the Norman rolls held in Calvados, as giving land to the monks near Bruton, Somerset; the other donors mentioned have Norman names: de Cantelu, de Carevilla & c.[52] As early as the 1841 Census Carey is found in significant numbers in Somerset (213 + 302 Cary), but also in South East England in Kent (210 + 11 Cary) and Sussex (194 + 13 Cary)[53] Carr(e)y also occurs as a variant in all three counties.
[58] However, most of the 42 Carey and 56 Cary entries in nearby Norfolk on the 1841 Census appear to be indigenous, with forenames such as Aron, Jemima, Phoebe, Priscilla, Rhoda, Samuel and Sarah (v. also note on Romani Car(e)y families in Kent and Sussex, above).
They appear mainly in London/Middlesex, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Kent, Northumberland, Cheshire, Oxfordshire, Essex etc.
[18] In a nutshell, in 1891 Lancashire, a major centre of Irish immigration in the 19th century, had more than twice the number of Careys than Somerset, the main provenance of English Car(e)y (v. supra 1841 census).
On the register at Houetteville in Eure is a 'Barbe Carré', mother in April 1671, and recorded as 'Barbe Carey' when she died in November of that year.
The Manoir de Carrey near Lisieux, Calvados, Normandy, has been cited by members of the Guernsey Carey family as their own origin.
[75] Many American Careys are able to trace their family origins back to Ireland via one of the waves of emigration from there, especially from the time of the Great Famine of 1845–1852.
Of earlier inception, however, is Mathew Carey (1760–1839), the Irish nationalist who fled his native Dublin to settle in Philadelphia, where he founded a publishing house.
More typical is former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey (1919–2011) a leading Irish-American politician descended from a 19th-century County Mayo emigrant.