6,805 Global RONEY Family Members

RONEY Family History

This interesting name is of Irish origin, and although found in Scotland in the forms of Roney and Ronnay, is a variant of Rooney, the Anglicization of the Gaelic "O'Ruanaidh", translating as "the descendant of the champion", the prefix "O" denoting grandson or male descendant. The (O)Rooneys were an ancient sept of Dromore, County Down, where Ballyroney locales them. Today the name is principally to be found in Ulster, where there is a place called Rooney's island in County Donegal. The O'Rooneys were a literary family, producing a long line of poets from 1079 (see below) until William Rooney (1873-1901), poet and Gaelic Revivalist.