Shine
Usually an Irish surname, often explained as a form of Seighin, though some sources also connect it with ideas of brightness or with a descriptive nickname.
The #5,595 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,661 Americans shares it.
Etymology
For the Irish surname, Harrison gives Shine as from Irish Seighin, a diminutive of a Gaelic word glossed as “falcon” or “hawk,” with a note that it may also have been influenced by a word meaning “champion.” Other Irish sources show forms like O Seigin, supporting an Irish Gaelic origin. There is also an English-looking explanation in older scholarship that treats Shine as related to Middle English and Old English words for “shine,” i.e. a bright or shining person, but for the surname as used in Ireland the Irish derivation is usually the better fit.
History
The name appears in Irish genealogical sources and was recorded in family-historical work on Irish names in the early 20th century. In English-speaking records it can also be confused with surnames such as Shiner or Sheen, which encouraged mixed or uncertain explanations in older dictionaries. The surname is not especially common in the United States, but it is well established in Irish-descended families.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th- and early-20th-century writers linked the name not just to a hawk-like nickname, but also to the idea of brightness, showing how easily Irish and English surname explanations could overlap in older scholarship.
From the historical record
“SHIMMAN I in] SHINE (Celt.) the Irish Seighin, a dim. of Ir. s^igh = Falcon, Hawk [Ir. dim. suff. in] Not, however, without confusion with the Ir. seighion, ' champion.' SHINER (Eng.) a nickname or occupati ve name [f. IVI.E. schynen, O.E. scinan, to shine] SHINGLER (A.-Lat.) Roofer, Tiler, i.e. with shingles or…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)