Higgins is a surname found in England and in Ireland with several origins.
Origins in England
all then stemmed with the patronymic termination ings; meaning belonging to, or the son of.
Origin in Ireland, Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUiginn ‘descendant of Uiginn’, a byname meaning ‘viking’, ‘sea-rover’ (from Old Norse víkingr). the name is an anglicised version of the Gaelic family Ó hUiginn, who were high status poets between the 14th and 17th centuries. Descendants of this family include Bernardo O'Higgins, the first Head of State of Chile, and Kevin O'Higgins who was Minister for Justice in the first Irish Free State government.