Brahney Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Brahney Family History

Brahney Family History

The Brahney ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Many different spelling variations of the same name can be traced back to a single original root. Also, when a bearer of a name emigrated from Ireland it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books upon arrival at their new location. Some names have dozens of spelling variations. Some Surnames were also altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically, by their sound, and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another. This was especially so in Ireland where most Gaelic names were 'anglicized' at some stage.

Variants of the name Brahney include Breheny and Judge. In Gaelic this surname is Mac an Bhreitheamhnaigh which literally means 'son of the judge'. Today the name Judge greatly outnumbers Brahney. In 1659 the name was numerous in the barony of Tirerrill, County Sligo and in the 'Stafford's Inquisitions' we find people of the name in Connacht. The 'Four Masters' record the death of Cormac an Brehon in the year 1483 and in the next century Eugene MacBrehan was Bishop of Mayo from 1541 to 1561. A most famous person of the name was Peter Judge who was one of the finest actors in the Abbey Theatre Company. He died in 1947.The Brahney family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Brahney descendants.