
Origin of the Name Doheny
The ancient history of the name
Doheny was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Doheny is derived from the Gaelic O'Dubhchonna sept who were located in the ancient territory known as 'Corca Laoidhe' in the very southern part of Ireland , which is the modern-day south-west part of County Cork . The majority of Gaelic names that begin with the word 'dubh' can translate the initial part of their name from Gaelic as meaning 'black'. The sept spread to the eastern part of Munster Province where it was occasionally changed to Dawney.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
In modern times the name is still well represented in County Cork and surrounding Counties.
The Doheny coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Doheny descendants.