Irish surname search
(O) HEANY, Hegney, MacANEANY, MacANEANY, Bird
There is no connexion between these three surnames except the fact that they have all been anglicized as Bird. This arose from incorporation of the Irish word Éan (bird) in these names.. None of them is so derived.
Heany is the anglicized form both Ó hÉanna (i.e. descendant of Enda) and also of Ó hÉinigh, which was formerly Ó hÉignigh, a form still extant as Hegney. There were several septs of both these names, now all Heany or Heeney. These are found today mainly in counties Armagh and Louth. Ó hÉignigh was chief of Fermanagh until they became tributary to the MacGuires in 1202; some annalists give them the title of king of Fermanagh and others king of Oriel prior to that date. There were also O'Heaneys, chiefs of Clann Chearnaigh (in Co. Armagh) some authorities consider them to be a distinct sept. Also in Ulster there were the O'Heanys who were erenaghs of Banagher, Co., Derry. The tomb of St. Muireadach O'Heaney was in the church which he is reputed to have founded there in 1121. O’Heanys and Heneys were numerous in Pctty's census in Louth and Derry in 1659 and the Hearth Money Rolls of Co. Armagh list a fair number of them. Then the former recorded Heany, Heeney and Heney as among the principal Irish names in Co. Tipperary, and in the Hearth Money Rolls it appeared 44 times. It is rare today in Munster, as is Bird. There were five medieaval archbishops or bishops of the name, three of Killaloe in the early thirteenth century and two of Cashel, Matthew O'Heney (d. 1205), a Cistercian monk of Holy Cross, who became archbishop in 1196, was Papal legate, founded many churches and wrote a life of St Cuthbert. The Four Masters mention another bishop, Macifinnia Ó hAenigh, who filled the see of Luighne (Meath). There is another important O'Heany sept, one of the Hy Fiachrach group, seated in Co. Mayo. Here again it is probably that these O'Heanys of north Connacht are of dual origin, one being 0 hÉighnigh and the other Ó Héanna. The name is not numerous there today. In modern times one of the north Tipperary-Offaly O'Heanys was very well known in America, Comelius Heeney (1754-1848), who went to New York at 30 years of age, became a multimillionaire and devoted practically all his immense fortune to charity. Seamus Heaney is a distinguished contemporary poet.
The second surname widely changed to Bird is Henaghan, other forms of which in use today are Heanaghan, Henchan, Henihan, Henekan and occasionally Heenan the last is properly a different name associated with Offaly and, north Tipperary. This sept of O'Henaghan, called Ó hÉineacháin (sometimes Ó hÉanacháin) in Irish, was also of the hy Fiachrach and located in Co. Mayo in the parishes of Balla and Manuila. Henaghan is a very numerous name now in counties Mayo and Galway. In 1635 when Strafford's lnquisition of Co. Mayo was carried out there were many of the name in the adjacent baronies of Carra and Clanmorris in that document the G is treated as hard, the spellings being O'Henegan and O'Henigan. Henecan is found too. Fr. Patrick Henecan, parish priest of Bllysodare, was Dean and Vicar-General of the diocese of Achonry in 1743. Tayg O'Henehan was arraigned as a robber In Kerry in 1295.