Flaherty Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Flaherty Family History

Flaherty Family History

The Flaherty ancient family history 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 Flaherty include O'Flaherty and Laverty. These names are derived from the Gaelic O'Flaithbheartaigh sept that possessed the territory on the east side of Lough Corrib in County Galway until the thirteenth century. The head of the sept was known as Lord of Moycullen and as Lord of Iar-Connacht, which, at its largest, extended from Killary Harbour to the Bay of Galway and included the Aran Islands. The Chieftaincy was continued until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The celebrated historian, Roderick or Rory O'Flaherty, 1629-1718, author of Ogygia, was the last recognized Chief of the Name. The Chief of the Donegal sept was Lord of Aileach or Elagh in County Donegal. He is also described in the ancient document 'The Four Masters' as Tanist of Tyrone. This sept may be regarded as distinct from that of Iar-Connacht.The Flaherty 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 Flaherty descendants.