Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Long Coat of Arms / Long Family CrestThe surname of LONG was a nickname 'one who was tall' from the stature of the bearer.The name was derived from the Old English 'lange'. The name is numerous in Munster and Donegal, and in County Cork where the name is most numerous, they are an erenagh family of Garrane I Long in the parish of Moviddy and of Canavoy, called O'Longaigh in Irish. The Irish prefixes of Mac (son of) and O (grandson or descendant of) gave rise at an early date, to a set of fixed hereditary names in which the literal patronymic meaning was lost or obscured. These surnames originally signified membership of a clan, but with the passage of time, the clan system became less distinct, and surnames came to identify membership of what is called a 'sept' of people all living in the same locality, all bearing the same surname, but not necessarily descended from a common ancestor. Adoption of the name by people who did not otherwise have a surname and by their dependents was not uncommon. Later, nicknames were in some cases to supersede the original clan names. Early records of the name mention Aetheric oes Langra, 972, County Northumberland. Leofwine Lange, 1070, County Suffolk. Henry le Long, 1273 County Buckinghamshire. Nicholas le Long was documented in County Surrey in 1297. Adam ye Langge, County Sussex, ibid. Johanna Long of Yorkshire was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Thomas Bolton and Mary Long were married in London in the year of 1536. The bulk of European surnames in countries such as England and France were formed in the 13th and 14th centuries. The process started earlier and continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the 11th century people did not have surnames, whereas by the 15th century they did.The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
