Brennan Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Brennan Family History

Brennan Family History

The ancient origin of the name Brennan was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Surnames developed a wide number of variants over the centuries. 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 Brennan include Brannon, Brannan and Brennand. These names are derived from the Gaelic O'Braonain septs whose Gaelic name taken from the Gaelic word 'braon' which has a number of meanings including 'sorrow'. The principal sept of O'Brennan was of Ossory where they were Chiefs of Ui Duach in Northern Kilkenny. In the face of the twelfth century invasion the sept's power waned and by the seventeenth century many of sept were reduced to the status of Rapparee. Another quite different sept was in the Eastern part of County Roscommon, whose Chief was MacBranain. Most of the Chiefs who appear in the Annals between 1159 and 1488 retained the 'Mac' until the submergence of the Gaelic order, when the 'O' prefix began to appear. The County Fermanagh sept of O'Branain also anglicized their name as Brennan as well as Brannan. A fourth sept was located in County Kerry from where their descendants spread to County Cork.The Brennan 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 Brennan descendants.