Language(s) Scots Word/Name senchaid Meaning skilled storyteller | Language(s) Old Irish Derivation cognate Variant(s) MacShannon, O'Shannon | |
Shannon, MacShannon, and O'Shannon are Anglicised Irish and Scottish surnames that derive from the Gaelic word seanachaidh, which means "skilled storyteller". Seanachaidh is a corruption of the Old Irish word senchaid.
Other forms of the name are Gilshenan and Giltennen. It is also connected to O'Shawnessey or O'Shannahan.
Several old Gaelic names of Scottish and Irish people alike were Anglicised as Shannon, despite being unrelated.
The 1990 United States Census found that Shannon was a very common surname (#679 out of 88,799) in the United States.
References
Shannon (surname) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA