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Chris Cairney

Surname History

"Cairney" is a Scots word.  That means that anyone who has the
name "Cairney" was linguistically—and probably culturally and
politically—under Scottish influence at some key point in his or her
family history between 1650 and 1850.  The name is much older than
that of course, but it found the form "Cairney" during that roughly 200
year period. Before that there would have been other forms, and
perhaps other languages.  Scots is a language spoken in Scotland
and also in the North of Ireland.  It is related to English, but it is not a
dialect of English.  Other languages in Scotland and the North of
Ireland include Gaelic, a Celtic language, and English.

The Cairneys have a  history going back to early medieval times (or
rather histories, for, like the Fergusons—another set of Gaelic
families with a Scots name— there are  origins in Scotland and
origins in the North of Ireland).  Because of a direct and ongoing
Cairney connection with the Norman world and way, the name is both
Gaelic and Gothic at the same time.  The family was consistently
involved in the work of the Church, particularly in the work of the
Columban church, the lay and monastic foundations of St. Colm
Cille—St. Columba—of Iona, Derry, Dunkeld and other several other
locations.  All the Cairneys are related in this way: they have origins
within the kindred of St. Columba and are therefore leaves on the
same ecclecsiastical branch of the Uí Néill.

Branches
Cairney of Inishowen
Gaelic: O Cearnaigh
Historical varients: O'Carnie (1609), O'Carney (1659), O'Kairney
(1665), O'Kearny (1665), Cairney (1743).

This sept of the Cenel Conaill branch of Uí Néill were at one time
coarbs or erenachs of Derry and had a long presence in the Culdaff
area of Inishowen.  Gille Críost (Gilchrist) O Cearnaigh was Abbot
and Coarb of Columba at Derry in 1198.  He was later raised to
Bishop of Conor.  A branch of the family were Erenachs of Killaghtee
Chuch in the south of Donegal.

Cairney of Perthshire
Gaelic: Cardenaigh
Historical varients:de Cardeney, Cairdeney, Cardney, Cairny, Carny,
Carnie, Cairnie.

This sept in Highland Perthshire and Strathearn began with the
marriage of William de Cardney (the barony of Cardney near
Dunkeld) with the heiress of Columban erenach family of Mac Nair of
Foss in the Appin (Abbey land) of Dull near Dunkeld.  One of these
Cairneys, Robert de Cairney or de Cardney, was Bishop of Dunkeld
in the late 14th century.  The MacNairs were an ecclesiastical sept of
the same Columban and Clan Duff kindred as Robertson and
Abernethy.  The Earl of Rothes (Leslie) has a historical association
with the lands and family of Abernethy and with the barony of Cairney
near Perth.  A family of Cairneys was settled in Aberdeen, also
connected with the Leslies.  The Cairneys of Foss were later Lairds
of Tulchan and afterwards Lairds of Scones Lethendy, all in
Perthshire.  

The MacCairneys of Galloway

There are other O Cearnaigh/Kearney/Carney families which
originate in the Middle, South and West of Ireland (Mayo, Westmeath
and Clare to be exact).   Some individuals from these families did
relocate to Scotland during the first half of the 19th century and in
the process were also saddled with the Scots spelling of the name,
"Cairney."  There are also the Mac Cearnaigh families: one
originating in Monaghan and another—of likely identical origin—
which shows up in Galloway as early as the 16th century. Some of
these—MacCairnies or MacCairneys in Scotland—also eventually
become Cairneys.  
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