Origin of the Name Rohan
The origin of the name
Rohan 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 Rohan
include Rowan, Ruan, Rouine, Rogan and Ruane. These names are derived from two distinct Gaelic septs.
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.
The O'Robhachain sept was located in Munster Province. The O'Ruadachain sept was located in Ulster Province. This Gaelic name is often anglicized as Roughan in County Clare. In North Connacht the name is found as part of a Ui Fiachrach Sept located around the parish of Robeen, County Mayo, and is recorded there as Ruane in the year 1840. The variant O'Rwan occurs frequently in the Fiants relating to Counties Clare, Cork , Wicklow, Kildare, and Leix. in modern times the name Rohan is mostly found in Counties Cork and Kerry .
The Rohan 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 Rohan descendants.