Irish surname search
O'Houneen, MacGlashan, Greene
Although Green is one of the commonest indigenous surnames in England and no doubt many of our Irish Greenes are of English extraction, nevertheless the majority of those who hail from Connacht and west Munster are native Irish in origin. There the name is almost always spelt with a final E. In Co. Clare where the name is well known, it is a synonym, by translation of the word uaithne (green), for O hUaithin, formerly anglicized phonetically as Huneen and Houneen: this is a genuine Dalcassian family. A similar metamorphosis has occurred in Co. Cork, where however Hooney was commoner as an alternative than Hooneen. Then again, there are Gaelic Greenes in Ulster to be found in every county from Derry to Armagh and into Louth. These are usually MacGlasain (alternatively MacGlashan) from the word glas which denotes a greyish green colour. O Fathaigh, normally Fahy, has sometimes been anglicized as Green by mistranslation, faithche meaning a green or lawn. In some parts of Ulster the Irish forms O Griana and Mac Griana are found. These would not appear to be of any antiquity, but the latter was in existence two centuries age, the name Nial Magreena appearing in a list of parishioners of Stranolar in 1751. The forms MacGrina and Magrina appear in a list of the followers of Rory O'Donnell in 1602. Seamus MacGrianna was a distinguished Gaelic writer. The present distribution of the name Green in Ireland, as revealed in the returns of the Registrar-General, is widespread throughout the country, with the adjoining counties of Clare, Galway and Tipperary predominating.
No Irishman or woman called Greene is famous unless we count Alice Stopford (Green) the Irish historian who married the English historian J.R. Green. Plunket Greene (1865-1936), was a singer and composer of some note. Daniel O'Hunonyn, of the family of Greenes of Co. Clare, became an Admiral of the Spanish Navy about 1750.