Origin of the Name Rush
The
Rush 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 Rush
include O'Ruse, Rushe, Ruish and Ruishe. This name in Irish is O'Ruis and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Oriel.
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 pedigree of the family can be supported in 'an Lebor Gebala' of O'Rois of Oriel and by the evidence in the Hearth Money Rolls. In the Fitzwilliam Accounts of 1561 we find a Thomas O'Rushe as official letter carrier. A Tadhg O'Rushe, who was a Kern, appears in the County Dublin Fiants dated 1566. Five different families of Rush, Rushe, Ruish and Ruishe appear in the Inquisitions for King's County, Offaly, dated 1623. The name is also found in Connacht where it is of the Ui Fiachrach O'Luachra. Luachair is the Irish word for Rush. This sept belongs to the Barony of Tireragh, County Sligo.
The Rush 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 Rush descendants.