Origin of the Name Kiernan
The ancient history of the name
Kiernan 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 Kiernan
include McTiernan, Tiernan and McKiernan. In the Annals of the 'Four Masters' these Irish families are mentioned no less than 33 times, nearly all of them being referred to as Chiefs of Teallach Donnchadha. They were a very important sept throughout the three centuries from 1250-1550. The name is still found chiefly in the Cavan and Leitrim area but generally without the prefix Mac. Another sept held territory in the north eastern part of Roscommon in mediaeval times, they being descended from the grandson of Turlough Mor O'Connor, King of Ireland .
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.
The name is also spelt in Irish MacThighearnain, which is anglicized MacKiernan.
The Kiernan 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 Kiernan descendants.