Coakley Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Coakley Family History

Coakley Family History

The ancient origin of the name Coakley was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Surnames developed a wide number of variants over the centuries. Many different spelling variations of the same name can be traced back to a single original root. Also, when a bearer of a name emigrated from Ireland it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books upon arrival at their new location. Some names have dozens of spelling variations. Some Surnames were also altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically, by their sound, and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another. This was especially so in Ireland where most Gaelic names were 'anglicized' at some stage.

Variants of the name Coakley include McKehilly, Colclough and Kehilly. Coakley is the modern spelling of MacKeighley, which is Mac Caochlaoich in Irish. The family were recorded as followers of Florence MacCarthy in the year 1584. In the 1659 Census we find the names MacKeighley and Coakley, this latter form being a more recent variant. Another corruption of the name is Colclough and they were well established in County Wexford from the sixteenth century. An Anthony Colclough acquired Tintern Abbey in the year 1575. Sir Vesey Colclough of Tintern Abbey was in France at the time of the revolution and he supported that cause. In the nineteenth century the family was still in possession of Tintern Abbey, an estate of 13,000 acres in County Wexford in the South-East of the country.The Coakley family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Coakley descendants.