McCormack Coat of Arms, Family Crest and McCormack Family History

McCormack Family History

The family history of the ancient name McCormack was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. Meaning 'charioteer', variants of the name McCormack include McCormick. This surname has come into existence in Ireland in many places. There was a minor sept of the name located in County Longford and other septs called O'Cormack and O'Cormacan that were located in Counties Roscommon, Galway, Clare, Cork, Down and Derry.

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. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

McCormacks are recorded as leading gentry in County Cork, and one was influential enough to raise a force to assist Desmond in the Elizabethan Wars. The ancient manuscript 'The Four Masters' records the deaths of several prominent MacCormacks located in County Fermanagh, the last of these died in 1431. The MacCormacks of Armagh were descendants of these.The McCormack 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 McCormack descendants.