Glynn — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mag Fhloinn
Meaning: 'son of Flann (ruddy)'
Traditional stronghold: Galway, Roscommon
Pronunciation: GLIN; Irish Mag Fhloinn: mog LIN
History of the Glynn name
Glynn chiefly represents Mag Fhloinn, 'son of Flann', a personal name meaning 'ruddy' or 'red'. The sept's homeland lay around Athlone on the Roscommon-Westmeath borders, but the name has long been commonest in Galway and Clare, where families of the same stock settled. In Leinster a minority of Glynns descend instead from Welsh settlers named Glyn, 'valley', so not all bearers share Gaelic origins. The name produced notable figures on both sides of the Atlantic: Martin H. Glynn, son of Irish emigrants, became the first Irish-American Catholic Governor of New York in 1913.
Variants: Glyn · McGlynn
Famous bearers of the name
- Martin H. Glynn — First Irish-American Catholic Governor of New York, in office 1913-14.
- Joseph Glynn — Galway-born public servant and first biographer of the Dublin ascetic Matt Talbot.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · O'Connor · Lynch · Murray · Connolly · Brennan · Burke · Flynn