Origin of the Name Buchanan
The origin of the name
Buchanan was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Buchanan is usually of Scottish origin and can be traced back to Gilbert, a Steward of the Earl of Lennox, about the middle of the thirteenth century. The Earl conferred upon Gilbert a part of the lands of Buchanan, from which he took his name. Maurice of Buchanan, his successor, received the same grant from the sixth Earl of Lennox. Maurice married the daughter of Menteith of Rusky, and thus his son became connected with the Royal House. It is said that at the Battle of Baugen-Anjou, in 1421, Sir Alexander, their eldest son, slew the Duke of Clarence. A later descendant named Thomas founded the House of Drumikil, of which the famous historian George Buchanan was a descendant.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland, especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland. While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The native Gaelic O'Buadhachain sept of County Cork had a number of anglicized forms, including Bohannon in County Clare and Buchanan in Ulster. Mawhannon is another Ulster variant of Buchanan.
The Buchanan coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Buchanan descendants.