Dempsey

Dempsey comes from the Irish surname Ó Díomasaigh. Its ancestor is the personal byname Díomasach, describing someone as proud or haughty, with Ó indicating descent. The meaning belongs to the historical surname and the person from whom a family name developed; it is not a prediction about a child’s temperament.

Two very different public associations are boxer Jack Dempsey and actor Patrick Dempsey. These help explain why the spelling may feel familiar even to people who have rarely encountered it as a first name. In a family with Dempsey ancestry, it can preserve a surname in another position. Its Irish background also places it alongside other first names that developed from inherited family names rather than from older baptismal names.