Origin of the Name Hannifin
The ancient history of the name
Hannifin was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Variants of Hannifin include Hanvey, O'Hanraghty, Enright and Hannivan. These names in Ireland are derived from the Gaelic O'hAinbheain sept of County Monaghan and from the O'hAinbhith sept of Counties Armagh and Down in Ulster Province. Other minor septs were located in Counties Meath and Cork . The latest available statistics show that apart from the city of Dublin , in which, of course, there are migrant families from all parts of Ireland , nearly all births of these names took place in Counties Louth, Armagh and Monaghan. The Chiefs of these families, of whom several are mentioned by the 'Four Masters' between 1019 and 1161, under the style of Lords of Ui Meith, held a considerable territory in the northern part of the modern County Louth. The pressure of the Anglo-Norman invasion pushed them westwards into County Monaghan, and in the twelfth century they settled near the modern town of Castleblaney.
The Hannifin 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 Hannifin descendants.