Irish surname search
(O) GORRY, Gorey Gurry
All are anglicized forms of Ó Guaire. Gorry the most usual form and is mainly found in Co. Offaly. Tadhg O'Guaire who was slain in 1032 is described by the Four Masters as Lord of Uí Cuilinn: In 1406 Richard Gowery acquired English liberty at Maynooth; in 1618 "white lights" were specially provided at the wake in Dublin of Walter Gorry of the Merchant Tailors Guild; four of the name appear in the Co. Meath Inquisitions between 1619 and 1638; Henry Gory of Trim, Co. Meath, was among the first Jacobites outlawed in 1669; Seaghan Ó Guaire was the author of the Jacobite song "Ar maidin inde". There are few to be found in the eighteenth century but in the nineteenth they are met them again, mainly in Co. Offaly e.g., in Griffith's Valuation. In the 1865 birth registrations there are ten Gorrys, all in the Tullamore area -- the two Goreys in the same year were born respectively in Waterford and Dublin.
The surname Gorey is never a toponymic derived from the town in Co. Wexford.