An Irish and English surname, Shea comes from the Gaelic term ‘seaghdha’ which means fine or fortunate as well as something that is hawk like. Variations in spelling for Shea include McShee, O’Shee, O;Shea and McShea. In England the Shea is scattered across the land but mostly concentrated in the City of London and in Lancashire County. The Glamorgan County of Wales also has many with the Shea name. The Scottish counties of Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Aberdeenshire and the islands of Orkney have the higher Shea populations. In Ireland the County Kerry has the greater Shea population. Within the United States many with the Shea surname live in New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Connecticut. Famous: Lt. Commander John Joseph Shea (commander in US Navy in the 1930-1940 and the USS Shea named in his honor), Cornelius P. Shea (an early 20th century labor leader), Francis Joseph Shea (professional baseball player), Jack Shea (television and movie film director), John Shea (playwright), Joseph F. Shea (a NASA aerospace engineer), Robert J. Shea (a 20th century writer), Nap Shea (professional baseball player), William A. Shea (founder of the Continental League of baseball and bring the NY Mets to NYC; a stadium named in his honor) and Jerry Shea (professional rugby player from Wales).