Origin of the Name Hannigan
The origin of the name
Hannigan 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 Hannigan
include O'Hannigan and Hanagan. This name in Irish is O'hAnnagain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from County Limerick .
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.
An early reference to the name occurs in 1556 when a John Hannigane, County Waterford, obtained his freedom. A generation later the name occurs among Jurymen and trade guild officials in Dublin and Inishowen. Later the name is recorded as a principal Irish name in the Barony of Decies, County Waterford in the Census of 1659. In modern times the name Hannigan is chiefly found in Counties Dublin , Waterford and Tyrone.
The Hannigan 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 Hannigan descendants.