Finnan

This surname has two origins, Firstly, it can be Irish deriving from the Anglicized form of the Gaelic byname Fionn meaning "white" or "fair"(haired), or, it can be of English origin deriving from the Old Norse personal name "Finnr" meaning "Finn". The name date's back to the late 12th Century, (see below). Further recordings include Robert le Fyne (1327) "The Subsidy Rolls of Somersetshire" and Thomas Fyn (1379) "The Poll Tax Records of Howdenshire". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Phin, Phinn, Fin, Finne, Finan, etc.. One, John Fynne married Agnes Morrial at St. Mary Abchurch, London on November 2nd 1567. Dorothy Finn married Thomas Browton at St. Gabriel, Cripplegate, london, on January 28th 1601, and Thomas, son of Thomas Finnan, was christened at St. Vincent Street, Scotch Church, Stepney on October 24th 1798. One, Teage Finn, an emigrant, sailed aboard the Industry, bound for Barbados on May 8th 1679. Bridget Finnan, a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool to New York aboard the Patrick-Henry on April 25th 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Norman Fin, which was dated 1190 - "The Calendar of Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edmunds i.e. related documents of Suffolk", during the reign of King Richard 1, "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.