Jennings - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac Sheoinín
Meaning: “son of little John”
Traditional stronghold: Galway, Mayo
Pronunciation: JEN-ingz; Irish Mac Sheóinín: mock HYOH-neen
History of the Jennings name
Though it looks English, Jennings in Connacht is the anglicisation of Mac Sheóinín, meaning son of little Seón or John, and denotes a Gaelicised branch of the great Norman house of Burke. The family descended from a John Burke and held lands on the Mayo and Galway borders around Dunmore and Tuam, becoming in speech and custom indistinguishable from their Gaelic neighbours. The English form arose as a rough translation, since Jennings likewise means son of little John. The name remains most numerous in Mayo and Galway, though English families of the unrelated surname also settled in Ireland at various times.
Variants: Jenings · MacJonine
Famous bearers of the name
- Pat Jennings - Newry-born goalkeeper for Tottenham, Arsenal and Northern Ireland, one of the greatest of all time.
- Brendan Jennings - Franciscan friar and historian who edited key documents of the seventeenth-century Irish colleges abroad.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Walsh · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane