Lenihan — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Leannacháin
Meaning: 'descendant of Leannachán'
Traditional stronghold: Limerick, Roscommon
Pronunciation: LEN-ih-han; Irish Ó Leannacháin: oh LAN-akh-aw-in
History of the Lenihan name
Lenihan represents two Gaelic families: Ó Leannacháin, a sept of County Roscommon recorded in the medieval annals of Connacht, and a Munster family, Ó Luingeacháin, whose name settled as Lenihan and Linehan in Limerick, Cork and Kerry, with Linehan the usual Cork spelling and Lenihan commoner in Limerick. Maurice Lenihan, the nineteenth-century journalist, wrote the standard Victorian history of Limerick. In modern Ireland the name is inseparable from a formidable political family: Brian Lenihan senior served in governments across four decades, his daughter Mary O'Rourke and sons Brian junior and Conor all held office, with Brian junior steering the Department of Finance through the crash of 2008.
Variants: Lenehan · Linehan · Lenaghan
Famous bearers of the name
- Brian Lenihan Snr — Fianna Fáil Tánaiste and minister in successive governments from the 1960s to the 1990s.
- Brian Lenihan Jnr — Minister for Finance during the 2008 financial crisis, who died in office in 2011.
- Maurice Lenihan — Journalist and author of the classic 1866 history of Limerick.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · O'Brien · Ryan · O'Connor · Murray · Brennan · Collins · Fitzgerald