What is the origin of the word hooligan?

Answer 1

The word Hooligan is of unknown origin. However it may derive from the surname Houlihan, a family living in London in the 1890's acting in Music Hall. A Russian word appeared in the 20th Century as Khuligan, meaning a political dissenter

Answer 2

I did a Google search and all said the origin is unknown, but the earliest record of the word was in 1898 in a London police report.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-hoo1.htm is a page I found. They said,

"Several suggestions have been made about its origin that link it to the Irish family name variously spelt Hooliganor Houlihan. It seems there was a popular music-hall song of the period about a rowdy Irish family of that name; the OED comments that there was a series about a similarly-named comic Irish character that appeared in a periodical called Funny Folks. Some reports say it was a mishearing of the term Hooley's gang but nobody has come up with a source for this."

So, sorry. I guess no one knows. ):

Answer 3

Found this while searching for the answer http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B00E0D91E31E033A2575BC0A9649D946197D6CF