Looney
An Irish surname, usually from O'Luinigh, meaning a descendant of a name linked with being armed or equipped.
The #2,795 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,915 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Looney is generally understood as an Anglicized form of Irish O'Luinigh (also written in variant forms), meaning 'descendant of Luinigh.' The personal name behind it is linked by older sources to luinneach, a word associated with being armed or warlike. In that tradition, the surname is not occupational or locational, but a clan or family name built from an ancestral byname.
History
Historical sources place the O'Looneys as a family of note in Tyrone, and the name appears in several spellings such as Lownye, Loweny, Lewney, Loney, and Looney across the 16th and 17th centuries. The name is especially associated with Ulster, though later bearers spread more widely within Ireland and the Anglophone world. Some references also note its presence in Manx records as a comparable or connected form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older records show the same family name in several spellings over time, including M'Lawney, Loweni, Lewney, and Looney.
From the historical record
“Lonan (c) ; Braddan, Ballaugh (u) ; elsewhere (w). LoONEY, contracted from O'Luinigh, ' Luinigh's de- scendant ' (luinneach, ' armed '). ' Gillacrist O'LuiNiGH, Lord of Cinel Moen,' a.d. 1090. J The O'LooNEYS were chiefs of Muintir Loney, in Tyrone. Compare (Irish) O'Looney, Looney. M'Lawney [1504], Lownye [1540]…”
— The Surnames & Place-Names of the Isle of Man