Origin of the Name McColgan
The origin of the name
McColgan 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 McColgan
include Colgan and O'Colgan. O'Colgan was Lord of a territory in the barony of Tirkeeran in County Derry. This was the homeland of one of the two distinct septs of Colgan, who were erenaghs of Donaghmore in Inishowen. In the course of time these O'Colgans became McColgans, influenced by the fact that the more important sept that was located in Offaly was McColgan. The ancient manuscript 'The Four Masters' has reference to these as early as the year 1212. The Rev. John Colgan, 1658, was a Franciscan Friar and Professor of theology at Louvian and author of 'Acta Sanctorium Hiberniae'. McColgan was the usual form of the name found on tombstones in Counties Derry and Donegal up to the nineteenth century. In modern times the name is found chiefly in north Ulster Province and in County Offaly.
The McColgan 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 McColgan descendants.