Origin of the Name McGinley
The origin of the name
McGinley 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 McGinley
include Ginnell, McGinnelly, McGinly and Ginly. This name in Irish is MagFhionnghaile and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from County Donegal.
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.
Bearers of the name have been notable churchmen and in the diocese of Raphoe the records contain many references including John MacGinly who was Bishop of the Philippines. The surname Ginnell is a variant of this name and is the form used by the Donegal McGinleys who settled in County Westmeath in the sixteenth century. Lawrence Ginnell, 1854-1928, was M.P. for Westmeath and was well known for his participation in Sinn Fein.
The McGinley 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 McGinley descendants.