Cannaday History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Ireland

Etymology of Cannaday

What does the name Cannaday mean?

The spelling and overall form of Irish names tend to vary widely over time. The original Gaelic form of the name Cannaday is O'Cinneide , which is derived from the words "ceann," which means "head," and "éidigh," which means "helmet" 1 or O'Cinnidha, which means "a nation" or "kind." 2

Early Origins of the Cannaday family

The surname Cannaday was first found in County Tipperary (Irish: Thiobraid Árann), established in the 13th century in South-central Ireland, in the province of Munster. This distinguished Irish family were descended from Kennedy, nephew of King Brian Boru, Ireland's great Warrior King who fell in the battle of Clontarf in the year 1014. 2

The name has a long and illustrious history that begins in early times: Flan O'Kennedy, Abbot of Tim, a learned poet who died in 1110; two O'Kennedy of Ormond chiefs who were slain in 1117; Giolla-Kevin O'Kennedy who died on a pilgrimage at Killaloe in 1159; O'Kennedy, Abbot of Innisfallen who died in 1198; Donal O'Kennedy, Bishop of Killaloe who died in 1212; and many more. 2

Early History of the Cannaday family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cannaday research. Another 67 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1615 and 1685 are included under the topic Early Cannaday History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cannaday Spelling Variations

Within archives, many different spelling variations exist for the surname Cannaday. Ancient scribes and church officials recorded names as they were pronounced, often resulting in the name of the single person being recorded under several different spellings. Different spellings that were found include Kennedy, Minagh, Kennady, O'Kennedy and others.

Early Notables of the Cannaday family

Prominent amongst the family at this time was Mathew Kennedy, who was forced to leave Ireland for France after the Fall of Limerick; Sir Robert Kennedy, 1st Baronet, an official of the...
Another 31 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Cannaday Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cannaday Ranking

In the United States, the name Cannaday is the 15,560^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 3

Cannaday migration to the United States +

In the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of thousands of Irish people immigrated to North American shores. The early settlers were enticed by the promise of their own land, but they were moderately well off in Ireland when they decided to emigrate. Therefore, they were merely carrying out a long and carefully thought out decision. The 1840s saw the emergence of a very different trend: thousands of extremely desperate people crammed into passenger boats hoping to find any type of opportunity. The Irish of this decade had seen their homeland severely stricken by crop failures which resulted in widespread disease and starvation. At whatever time the Irish immigrants came to North America, they were instrumental in the rapid development of the emerging nations of the United States and what would become known as Canada. An exhaustive search of passenger and immigration lists has revealed many persons bearing the name Cannaday, or one of its variants:

Cannaday Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Clement Cannaday, who arrived in Virginia in 1642 4
John Cannaday, who landed in Virginia in 1642 4

Cannaday Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Robert Cannaday, who arrived in Virginia in 1700 4
William Cannaday, who landed in Virginia in 1717 4

Contemporary Notables of the name Cannaday (post 1700) +

Charles W. Cannaday, American Republican politician, Candidate for Missouri State House of Representatives 2nd District, 1980 5

Citations +

MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Families Their Names, Arms and Origins 4th Edition. Dublin: Irish Academic, 1982. Print. (ISBN 0-7165-2364-7)
O'Hart, John, Irish Pedigrees 5th Edition in 2 Volumes. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1976. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0737-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 19) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html