Origin of the Name O'Marron
The ancient history of the name
O'Marron was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Variants of O'Marron include Marren and Marron. This name in Irish is O'Mearain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Ulster .
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.
There were two septs of the name, one in Oriel and the other in the Ui Fiachra country. With the spelling Marren they where found chiefly in County Sligo and with the spelling Marron they were found in the Carrickmacross area. In the County Monaghan Hearth Money Rolls of 1665 we find O'Maran, O'Marran and O'Meran while in the Census of 1659 O'Merran was a principal Irish name in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. Mearn is sometimes used as a synonym of Marron in Ballymena but there are also Scottish Mearn's there and in the surrounding area.
The O'Marron 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 O'Marron descendants.