Ryan

Variations – O’Ryan, Ryne
Racial Origin – Irish
Source – A Given Name

Unless we include the old Roman family names, which now are virtually extinct (though they formed the most perfect system of family nomenclature of all), the family or clan names of Ireland are the oldest, with Scotland and England and Wales next in order, together with the Normans. German and Dutch family names are a comparatively modern development.

The use of clan names as family names, together with the laws governing their use, was crystallized in Ireland about the year 1000 A.D. by one of the greatest of that country’s 3000-year line of “High-Kings,” Brain Boru.

And among the clan-families which came into being as a separate entity about this period were the O’Ryans, who held the territory about Ldrone, in what is now County Carlow.

But such forms of the name as O’Ryan, Ryan and Ryne are but English traditions of the Gaelic, in which language the clan name is “O’Righin.” At the time these English spellings were developed, it is interesting to note, the English “y” and “I” had not developed the “long” sound, as in “like.” So Ryan was a pretty close copy of “Righin” when you consider that the “gh” in the latter was but a sort of aspirate separating the two vowel sounds.