Origin of the Name MacInerney
The ancient history of the name
MacInerney was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name McInerney
include Nerney and Kinnerk. The name in Irish is Mac an Airchinnigh, taken from the Gaelic word 'airchinneach' meaning 'erenagh', a steward of Church lands. The erenaghs of Saint Patrick, Elphin, and Tuam acquired this name and are still to be found located in County Roscommon where their name has been changed to Nerney. Another sept was of Thomond. The name McInerney is almost exclusively associated with County Clare where they were erenaghs and a Gaelic sept of the same stock as the McNamaras around the year 1300. They were centered in the old parish of Kilconry, their ancestral estate at Ballycally being lost with the Cromwellian confiscations.
The MacInerney 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 MacInerney descendants.