Origin of the Name Richan
The origin of the name
Richan was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Richan is, according to records, a very puzzling name of uncertain origin, but is believed to have originated in Orkney. This name is of Scottish descent and is found in many ancient manuscripts in that country. Examples of such are the 'Richans' who owned odal land in Ophir during the fifteenth century. A Mawnis Richan was odaller in Howbuster, recorded in the year 1492. A William Richane was recorded as portioner of Howbuster in 1657. An Alexander Richan appears in records in Brabister, parish of Walls, in the year 1620. Names were recorded in these ancient documents to make it easier for the overlords to collect taxes and to keep records of the population at any given time. When the overlords acquired lands by either force or as gifts from their rulers, they created charters of ownership for themselves and their vassals.
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.
The Richan 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 Richan descendants.