Tighe
Usually an Irish surname from Mac Tighe, literally “son of Tadhg,” though some English lines may be tied to place-names or saintly forms.
The #6,824 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,474 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest Irish explanation derives Tighe from Mac Tighe, a reduced form of Mac Taidhg, meaning “son of Tadhg.” Tadhg is an old Irish personal name, often glossed in older sources as something like “poet” or “philosopher,” though its exact deeper sense is uncertain. Some English surname writers also treated Tighe as a local or devotional name, possibly connected with place-names such as Saint Tygh or Tye/Tye-like forms, so not every bearer will share the same origin.
History
The name is well known in Ireland, especially in Leinster, where families bearing Tighe were established by the early modern period. Older English genealogical writers sometimes linked the surname to a locality or to a saint’s name, but later authorities more commonly treated the Irish patronymic as the main source. In English records, spellings such as Tygh and Tyghe also appear, showing how variable the name was before spelling settled.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly connected Tighe with Mac Tighe, and one common Anglicized Irish surname, Teague, is related to the same personal name Tadhg.
From the historical record
“TIGG, v. Tegg. TIGHE, a contr. of MacTlghe, q.v. TILBERT (Eng.) the A.-Sax. Tilbe(o)rht [O.E. til, good, liberal + he{o)rht, bright, illus- trious] TILBROOK (Eng.) Bel. to Tilbrook (Beds), 13th cent. Tilhroc, Domesday Tilebroc = Tila's Brook [Tila, genit. Tilan-, f. O.E.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)