Staunton Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Staunton Family History

Staunton Family History

The family history of the ancient name Staunton 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 Staunton include Stanton and MacEvilly. This was an important Hiberno-Norman sept, their original territory being Connacht.

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.

They settled in Connacht just after the Anglo-Norman invasion and in the fourteenth century under Richard de Burgo acquired territory in the baronies of Clanmorris and Carra. The ancestor of the MacEvillys was Sir Bernard Staunton, formerly de Sdondon, whose son Philip Mor de Sdondon was amongst the first Norman invaders. Most of the MacEvillys have now reverted to the name Staunton and in the birth registrations of 1890, 67 Stauntons or Stantons were recorded in Counties Mayo and Galway. A very early record of the name refers to an Alice de Stanton, from Cambridgeshire in the year 1273. The Staunton 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 Staunton descendants.