Origin of the Name Minnis
The
Minnis 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 Minnis
include Mannice, MacNish, MacNeice, MacNess and MacKness. This name in Gaelic is MacNeis and MacNaois, which in turn are from the name MacAonghuis, meaning 'son of Angus'. This name is of Scottish Gaelic descent and is recorded throughout the history of that country. An example of this is the Clan MacNish, who once possessed much of the upper parts of Strathearn, but were almost exterminated by the MacNabs at a battle fought at Glenboltachan, in the year 1522.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
In modern times the name is still found mostly in east-Ulster .
The Minnis 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 Minnis descendants.