According to Edward MacLysaght*, Quinn is a Gaelic name and one of the most numerous of Irish surnames, the number of people in Ireland so called in 1957 was estimated at 17,000: in the list of commonest surnames, at the time, it occupied 20th place in the country as a whole and first place in Co. Tyrone, though widespread in many counties. Tyrone is the place of origin of one of the five distinct septs of this name. The word sept refers to persons whose known ancestors had a common surname and inhabited the same locality. It has a similar meaning to clan.
Quinn is derived from O'Quinn, which is formed from the personal name Conn. The prefix O comes from "ua" meaning grandson or, more loosely, descendant in Gaelic. The practice, though not invariable, is that Catholic families use two Ns and Protestants one. Place names Inchiquin and Ballyquin are spelt with only one final N.
MacLysaght mentions Niall O'Cuinn, a member of the O'Cuinn sept of Thomond, who was killed, along with Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland, at the battle of Clontaff in 1014; Niall O'Cuinn was the captain of Brian Boru's bodyguard. The Franciscan Thomas O'Quinn was Bishop of Clonmacnois from 1252 to 1279, and John Quinn, a Dominican, was Bishop of Limerick from 1522 to 1551.
Families of O'Quinn settled in France and became leading citizens of Bordeaux and Pau. There is a street called Rue O'Quinn in Bordeaux. There are three streets called Quinn in the Montreal area, and I would expect that there are streets called Quinn in Boston and other cities of the USA where the Irish settled in the 19th century. I was for five years, in the 70s, a member of the Board of an engineering society based in New York City; for one year there were three Quinns on the board, also a Flaherty, a Connolly and an O'Brien; the President referred to us on one occasion as the Irish mafia.
Stanley Quinn*Reprinted with permission from "Irish Familes" by Edward MacLysaght, published by Irish Academic Press, Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland; copyright Estate of Edward MacLysaght. Mr MacLysaght was formerly Chief Herald of Ireland and Chairman of the Irish Manuscript Commission.
The Quinn arms at the top of this page was downloaded from an Irish website on the Internet. It is the same as that shown in Mr MacLysaght's book, where reference is made to the archives of the Irish Office of Arms (Genealogical Office).
