Last name origins & meanings:
- Irish (of Welsh origin): topographic name from Welsh
blaenau, plural of blaen ‘point’, ‘tip’, ‘end’,
i.e. uplands, or remote region, or upper reaches of a river.
- The first recorded bearer of this name is a certain Ieuan Blaenau,
who appears as Evan Blayney in a list of burgesses of Welshpool in
1406. Edward Blayney went to Ireland with the Earl of Essex in 1598;
he was knighted in 1603 and elevated to the peerage of Ireland as Lord
Blayney, Baron of Monaghan. The name was brought to North America in
the 18th century from Ireland rather than Wales. The Welsh line died
out in 1795 with Arthur Blayney of Gregynog, Montgomeryshire.
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