Blaney
A surname with Welsh and Irish roots, often explained as a place-name meaning a hill or valley-end.
The #8,541 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,110 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is usually treated as locational. One 19th-century source derives it from Welsh elements referring to the head or end of a valley, while another connects it with a place-name in Normandy near Bayeux. Later surname guides also associate Blaney with Irish forms such as Bléine/Bléaney and list it alongside Blayney and Bleaney as related spellings.
History
Blaney appears in both Welsh and Irish surname traditions, and English-language reference works have not always agreed on a single origin. In Ireland it is found especially in Ulster, with later records showing concentrations in counties such as Fermanagh and elsewhere. The surname also overlaps with the better-known Blayney/Blaney family name in Anglo-Irish usage, so historical spellings can be fluid.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes treated Blaney as a place-name surname twice over: once from a Welsh topographic term and once from a Norman French locality.
From the historical record
“BLANDFORD. A town in co. Dorset. BLANEY. From one of the two places called Blagni, near Bayeux, in Xormaudj'. BLANK. BLANKS. See Blanch. BLANKETT. See Blanchett. BLATCIILEY. A parish in Bucks. (Bletchley.) BLATHERWYCK. A parish in co. Nor- thampton.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom