Origin of the Name Gannon
The origin of the name
Gannon 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 Gannon
include McGannon and Gannan. These names are derived from the Gaelic Mag Fhionnain sept that was located in County Mayo.
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 Gaelic form of this name in County Clare is Mag Canann, sometimes anglicized as MacConnon. Famous bearers of the name include Father Michael Gannon who took part in the 1798 insurrection led by Wolfe Tone, and who was earlier prominent on the side of the aristocracy in the period of the French Revolution. The American actress Mary McGannon, 1829-1868, was of Irish parentage. Nicolas John Gannon, 1829-1875, the famous poet, was born in Kildare.
The Gannon 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 Gannon descendants.