Ennis Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Ennis Family History

Ennis Family History

The family history of the ancient name Ennis 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 Ennis include O'Hennessy and Henchy. Ennis is a name from which the prefix O has been entirely dropped in modern times, though the variant O'Hennessy was still widely used in the seventeenth century. In Irish this name is O'hAonghusa, meaning a descendant of Aonghus or Angus. The principal sept of this name was located near the town of Kilbeggan and the hill of Croghan, their territory being chiefly in the northern part of Offaly where they shared with O'Holohan the Lordship of Clan Cholgain. A branch of this was located nearer to Dublin, the head of it being Chief of Gailenga Beg on the north side of the River Liffey on the borders of Counties Meath and Dublin. Another distinct sept was of Corca Laoidhe, located near Ross Bay in southwest Cork. Today these names are associated with Counties Cork, Limerick and Tipperary. The original Gaelic form of Ennis was O'Hennis which in time became O'hAonghusa.The Ennis 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 Ennis descendants.