Drennan Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Drennan Family History

Drennan Family History

The family history of the ancient name Drennan 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 Drennan include Drennen, Skehan, Torrens, Thornton, Dreinan, Drinane, Drinan and Drynan. These names are derived from the Gaelic O'Draighnean sept who belonged to the Siol Anmchadha group and were located in the Barony of Longford in County Galway.

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.

This name is found from very early times and in the ancient text 'The Four Masters' the death is recorded of Gillachiarain O'Draighnen at Fore in the year 1163. There are two placenames called Ballydrinan in Tipperary and Kildare. A notable bearer of the name was the United Irishman Dr. William Drennan, 1754-1820. An anglicized variant of the Irish name is Torrens one of whom was a famous Australian, 1814-1884, who simplified the land title registration known as the Torrens System. He was born in County Cork and the River Torrens in South Australia is named after him. The Drennan 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 Drennan descendants.