Hanrahan is an Irish surname shared by many Irish people and descendants of Irish emigrants. The name is most common in the area of the Shannon Estuary (counties Kerry, Limerick and Clare) in Ireland. Through emigration the name has become fairly common in the US, the UK and other countries to which the Irish emigrated. Many famous people share this name as well. The name was originally spelled『hAnnracháin』and initially used in the Irish province of Leinster, where local nobles and kings with the name ruled. Variations include Hanradhan and Hanraghan. Many families within Ireland and those of emigrants from Ireland, of the Ó hAnnracháin family, Anglicised their names to "O'Hanrahan" or "Hanrahan". Eochaidh, King of Leinster, an early monarch who fled to Scotland in exile in 540, was the first ruler to bear the surname. The name originates from Anradhán, diminutive of the Old Irish word "ánradh", which translates as "warrior".[1][2]
According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the O'Hanrahans were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCaisorDalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.[3]
