Origin of the Name MacNicholas
The
MacNicholas family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Variants of McNicholas include Nicholas and Clausson. This name in Irish is MacNioclais and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Mayo.
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.
They are a Gaelicized branch of the Norman de Burgos. The inquisitions of James I's reign show that they held extensive estates around Bohola, in the barony of Gallen and the Book of Survey and Distribution records them as proprietors in the adjacent barony of Clanmorris in the year 1641. The name became prominent again in the nineteenth century in the person of Reverend Patrick MacNicholas, Bishop of Achonry from 1818 to 1852. In the 1659 Census it is found as one of the principal Irish names in County Waterford.
The MacNicholas 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 MacNicholas descendants.