Origin of the Name Harney
The ancient history of the name
Harney 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 Harney
include Harnie, Harnoy, Harnay, Hartney, Haherny, Hartnane, Hartnett, Harnett, O'Harney, Harknett, Harnedy, Hartnetty and Harnet. This name in Irish is O'hAthairne and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. It has been suggested that this name is taken form the Gaelic word 'athardha' meaning 'paternal'. This sept came from County Roscommon and in later times from County Tipperary.
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.
When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. This name and its variants appear frequently in the sixteenth century Fiants.
The Harney 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 Harney descendants.