Old Irish Kingdoms and Clans, the Flann Name

By the 950’s the Viking’s themselves were settling and intermarrying with the Irish whilst continuing to make military alliances with the Irish chieftains, or heads of their clans. These events led to a stabilization of the southern part of the country and the establishment of Ireland’s first towns along its coastline at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, and with these the expansion of its seafaring trade.

All this confirms the tradition in the family the name was Irish in origin. In 1923, the Reverend Patrick Wolfe, in “Irish Names and Surnames” said the name is an ancient and once common name meaning “ruddy”. Various spellings were given- Floinn, Flann, Flan. Also listed is Florence (a surname that occurs on Portland) that is a corruption and anglicized version of an Irish word of the same meaning. Certainly from observation and in our own family some members were auburn haired and fresh complexioned, as Grandpa Flann and Aunt Doris Evelyn.

It also was also a family tradition that father was named for the Irish King, Sionna, (phonetic: “Shonna”). An 1891 Whitakers Almanac, incidentally the year of his birth, was cited as authority and the more recent scholarship and research confirms in 876AD an Irish king of that name. It must be presumed that grandmother and grandfather Flann were aware of an ancient Irish family connection when naming father.

Added reason for thinking this is that grandfather used the pseudonym “A Clansman” for his poem “Portland”, (see 1.37.) and there can be no other explanation than his choice goes back to his connection with the earliest Flann roots in an Irish clan. The name is quite unique in Portland Flann family male Christian names, and there must have been good reason for choosing it. Perhaps this was it.

There is more family tradition of the Irish connection in that the fisherman Flanns from Chesil (another branch of the family) often fished off the southern Irish coast and entered ports such as Cork to visit relatives.

Thus given all this and particularly the sea faring and trading of those early Irish from southern Ireland, it is more than likely that some named Flann were among them, and by sea they got to Portland and then settled there. When they did it is unlikely will ever be established-but it was certainly a very long while ago and lost in the mists of time.

We are content to accept it is Ireland where the name Flann originated. Dictionaries of surnames do however suggest it is Norman in origin, being a derivation of “flawn” makers of pancakes, but little weight can be attached to this when considered against the wealth of the evidence to the contrary from more ancient Ireland.