Origin of the Name Rhatigan
The
Rhatigan 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 Rhatigan
include Ratigan, Rattigan, Ractigan, Ratican and Rattican. This name in Irish is O'Reachtagain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Roscommon. 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. This family were co-arbs of Saint Finnen in the Parish of Clooncraff, County Roscommon, which lies between Elphin and Athlone. In the twelfth century Irish Charters, copied into the Book of Kells, the name appears twice as MacRechtogain and MacRectacan. In the sixteenth century the Tudor Fiants show that the name had dropped its 'Mac' prefix in favour of the 'O' prefix. The Gaelic poetess Maire Ni Reachtagain was born around 1733. In modern times the name is mostly found in Counties Roscommon, Galway , Mayo and Westmeath.
The Rhatigan 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 Rhatigan descendants.