Origin of the Name Horan
The
Horan family history 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 Horan
are O'Horan and Haren. The true sept of O'Horon, called O'hOdhrain in Irish , originated in County Galway from where they spread into County Mayo and are now fairly numerous in those Connacht Counties. Some anglicized forms of the name recorded in County Clare are Haren and Haran. Even when written Horan it is pronounced with an internal aspirate which is more accurately represented by the form Haughran, which is found in the birth registers of County Offaly as a synonym of Horan. Yet another variant, in this case peculiar to County Cork , is O'Hourahan or O'Horahan, a rare name but one familiar formerly to readers of 'The Nation' Newspaper on account of its regular contributor M. J. O'Horahan.
The Horan 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 Horan descendants.