Origin of the Name Kerrigan
The origin of the name
Kerrigan 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 Kerrigan
include O'Keighron and Keighron. This name in Irish is O'Ciaragain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from North Connaught .
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. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
They were one of the Hy Fiachrach of North Connaught and a branch of these migrated to County Donegal while another moved to County Armagh. The other sept of the name was Keighron, their territory being in County Galway in the Barony of Longford. In many cases this name has been changed to Kerrigan in places like Manorhamilton, County Leitrim. By the middle of the seventeenth century the name was well established in Armagh and in modern times they are often found in Ballykerrigan, County Mayo and Ballykergan, County Donegal.
The Kerrigan 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 Kerrigan descendants.