Origine et histoire

Occupational surname derived from Old English 'smitan', meaning 'to strike' or 'to smite', designating a worker in metal — particularly a blacksmith or farrier. In Ireland, Smith can be an anglicisation of the Gaelic 'Mac Gabhann' or 'O Gobhann' (son or descendant of a smith), where 'gobha' is the Irish word for a blacksmith. The name arrived both through Gaelic naming traditions and through later English and Scottish settlement during the plantations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, making it one of the most multi-origin surnames in the country.