Origin of the Name Horgan
The
Horgan 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 Horgan
include Horrigan, Hourigan, Arragan, Harrigan and Organ. These names are derived from the Gaelic O'hArgain sept that was located in County Cork in Munster Province. A sept or clan was a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. An early record of the name concerns a David O'Horegane, a kern of Leix, who received a pardon in the year 1551. A most notable person of the name was Rev. Mathew Horgan (1777-1849) who was a Gaelic scholar and poet. By the year 1890 there were 66 birth registrations of the name recorded in Counties Cork and Kerry . No less than four place-names are named after the sept, they being called Ballyhorgan.
The Horgan 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 Horgan descendants.