Hennigan Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Hennigan Family History

Hennigan Family History

The Hennigan ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

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 Hennigan include O'Hannigan and Hanagan. This name in Irish is O'hAnnagain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from County Limerick.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

The first reference of the name was in 1556 when a John Hannigane, County Waterford, obtained his English Liberty and a generation later the name occurs among Jurymen and trade guild officials in Dublin and Inishowen. Later we find it as a principal Irish name in the Barony of Decies, County Waterford in the Census of 1659 and in modern times it is chiefly found in Counties Dublin, Waterford and Tyrone.The Hennigan 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 Hennigan descendants.