Origin of the Name Greene
The
Greene family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Meaning 'at the green', a grassy plot used by the village as a common.
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 Greene
include Green, Greening, Greenman, Greemon, Greenaway, Greenbank and Greenfield. This name is of Anglo-Saxon descent spreading to the Celtic countries of Ireland , Scotland and Wales in early times and is found in many mediaeval manuscripts throughout these countries. Examples of such are a Deonista ate Grene and a Robert Greneway, Oxford, who were recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls', England , in the year 1273. In Ireland this name is nearly always spelt with an 'e' as Greene and originates from the Provinces of Connacht and Munster . It is an anglicized version of a number of Gaelic sept names including O'hUainin, O'Fathaigh and O'Grianain that were more usually changed to Honeen, Fahy and Greenan.
The Greene 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 Greene descendants.