Moroney Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Moroney Family History

Moroney Family History

The Moroney ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. Variants of the Irish name Moroney include Maroney, O'Moroney and Mulrooney. These names are derived from the Gaelic O'Maolruanaidh sept name, meaning 'descendant of the follower of Ruanaidh'.

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.

There were several septs of the name in mediaeval times, one of them being located in County Fermanagh where they were powerful before the rise of the MacGuires, and where they survive in small numbers today under the name Mulrooney. The name has become Moroney and Maroney in the western Counties and especially in County Clare from where it spread to neighbouring Counties, becoming well established in County Kerry.The Moroney 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 Moroney descendants.