Origin of the Name Sheridan
The ancient history of the name
Sheridan 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 Sheridan
include O'Sheridan and Sheraton. This Irish family originated in County Longford where they were erenaghs of Granard. They later moved to County Cavan where they were followers of the powerful O'Reillys. The name in Irish is O'Sirideain meaning 'descendant of Siridean'. The Sheridans are now widely spread throughout each of the four Provinces, though found less in Munster than elsewhere. The prefix 'O' was mostly dropped during the seventeenth century. Families of the name have been noted for their achievements in the literary field, the most famous being Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751-1816, the Dublin born dramatist and orator, and longtime member of the English Parliament. The variant Sheraton was first recorded in the year 1318 in the 'Histories and Antiquities of the County Palatine, County Durham'.
The Sheridan 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 Sheridan descendants.