Coyne
Coyne is an Irish surname with several possible roots, most often linked to an old Gaelic personal name and sometimes to a Norman place-name.
The #3,130 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,789 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Coyne is usually treated as Irish in origin, commonly connected with Gaelic names built on Con or Coinn, which can relate to ideas such as "wisdom" or "hound/warrior." In Irish surname collections it is also linked with forms like Mac Giolla Chaoine and related spellings, which helps explain why Coyne can appear alongside Kilcoyne and other Irish variants. Some 19th-century writers also suggested a separate Norman source from a place called Coigni near Coutances, so the name may not have a single origin in every family line.
History
In Irish records, Coyne is found as an established surname and is grouped with other names such as Quin, Quinn, and Kyne. The name was especially common in western Ireland and appears in later surname statistics and compilations by Irish scholars such as Matheson and Woulfe. English writers also recorded a possible Staffordshire family connection to Weston-Coyney, showing that the surname history is not entirely uniform.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books place Coyne in the same broader Irish name cluster as Quin and Quinn, reflecting how Gaelic names were often Anglicized in several different ways.
From the historical record
“century. COYNE. See Coyney. COYNEY. The manor of Weston- Coyney, in the parish of Caverswall, co. Stafford, seems to have been in possession of the family from temp. Hen. III. B.L.G. The family probably came from Coigni, near Coutances, in Normandy. CRABBE. Probably a sobriquet allusive to the awkward gait of the…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom