Where the Fox name comes from

Fox has more than one origin, one in England and several in Ireland. In England the name comes from the Middle English word for the animal, and it went to people who looked like a fox or shared its qualities, such as cunning or red hair. Some English Fox families come instead from the Norman name Folko or Foulques, carried by a son or descendant of a man who bore it.

In Ireland the main source is Ó Sionnaigh, a clan of the Irish Midlands who ruled Tethbae and later became barons of Kilcoursey in County Offaly. They traced their line to Maine of Tethba, a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Other Irish families reached Fox from de Bhosc, a Norman name from County Limerick, and from Mac an tSionnaigh, found mainly in Ulster. Mac Seancha, from County Sligo, became Fox by mistake, because Seancha was wrongly thought to come from Sionnach. By the 2010 census Fox ranked 180th among surnames in the United States, carried by 152,334 people.