Origin of the Name Flynn
The origin of the name
Flynn 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 Flynn
include Flyng and Lynn. Meaning 'ruddy', this name is of Irish origin and is found throughout the four Provinces. There were several distinct septs of O'Flynn, one being O'Flynn of Ardagh Castle and another O'Flynn of Muskerry, both in County Cork in the very South of the country. In Connacht Province the main O'Flynn sept was of Kiltullagh, County Roscommon. The famous Southern Armagh sept had territory between Lough Neagh and the sea. Their ancestry is traced back to Colla Vais, King of Ireland , in the fourteenth century. In modern Irish the name became anglicized as O'Lynn, Lynn and Ling. These names are mostly found in Counties Kilkenny and Wexford.
The Flynn 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 Flynn descendants.