The Kinningham Name

There is a flood of variations on this particular surname. It began as an old Irish-Gaelic name, existing in its original Irish-Gaelic form, O'Connagain and MacCunnineagain, long before the Norman conquest, Anglican dilution and British occupation. Three hundred years of occupation, however, had it's effect, and the name changed from O'Connagain and MacCunnineagain, respectively, to O'Cunnigan and MacCunningan. Eventually, the Scottish prefixes "O" and "Mac" would also feel the effects of Anglican dilution and inevitably be lost altogether, making the name simply "Cunnigan." The actual "Cunningham" spelling appears a bit later, in 1263, when Harvey de Cunningham fought at the Battle of Largs, and again in 1321, when Hugh de Cunningham received the lands of Lamburgton from King Robert Bruce. In the end, forced by the British into Ireland, the Scots would take their names with them.

Today, the variations of this name are, by percentage of population, most prevalent in Ireland and Scotland. As a generalization, in Ireland the most common spellings are Cunigan, Counihan, Coonaghan, Kinningham and Kinnegan. In Scotland, the spellings tend to be Cuninghame, Cuningham, Cunnynghame, Cunynham.

Of the first Cunninghams to reach the New world were John Cunningham, and his wife and son, who settled in the Barbados in 1679. The Kinningham variation of the name arrived in the New World even a bit before that, first settling in the Carribean islands in the 1500's.

The Clan Cunningham tartan (9kb) is red, black, white and blue. (The blue runs in a tiny line along side the white.) The Cunningham coat of arms is silver with a black shakefork. The crest is a unicorn's head and the family motto is, "Over fork over."

* The Gaelic word "clan" literally translates into English as 'children.' So, Clan MacCunnineagain, in Gaelic would literally mean 'children of the son of Cunnineagain,' Clan Cunningham would mean 'children of Cunningham,' etc. In modern times, the clan has become something broader, more in lines with the structure of a tribe. One Clan can contain several septs, people with different family names, but everyone in the clan shares the common bloodline of the clan progenitor for whom the clan is called.

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