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The Slevin Name
Ireland was one of the earliest countries to evolve a system of hereditary surnames. They came into being fairly generally in the eleventh century. As the population increased and the former practice, first of single names and then nicknames proved insufficient. At first the surname was formed by prefixing Mac to the father's Christian name or O to that of the grandfather or earlier ancestor.
The following information is taken from "The Surnames of Ireland" by Edward MacLysaght MA DLITT MRIA. Sixth Edition 1985 by Irish Academic Press.
Mr. MacLysaght is the leading authority on Irish names and family history. He has served as Chief Herald and Genealogical Officer of the Irish Office of Arms, Keeper of Manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland and Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.
(O) Slavin, Slevin (O Sleibhin): presumably derived from Sliabh, mountain. The name of a branch of the Cenel Eoghain in Ulster; an old ecclesiastical family in Fermanagh. Slevin appears in the very north of Co. Fermanagh in McLysaght's map, which shows the location of the Gaelic septs and the principal Hiberno-Norman families in the period after the Anglo-Norman invasion and before the upheavals of the seventeenth century. Some families of the name settled in Co. Westmeath in the seventeenth century.
"More Irish Families" by Dr. Edward MacLysaght:
(O) Slevin, Slavin: Both the forms Slevin and Slavin are found today in about equal numbers, chiefly in Ulster, 18 of the 25 births registered for the name in Matheson's test year being in that province. O Sleibhin, which is said to be derived from the Irish word 'sliabh' (a mountain) was the name of a branch of the Cenel Eoghain in Ulster, famous in the early midiaeval period as poets. Giolla Comhghaill O Sleibhin, chief bard of Ulster, was associated with King Malachy in the northern resistance to Brian Boru; other Ulster poets of the name about the same time are mentioned by the Four Masters, as well as one who was chief poet of Oriel in 1168. Though seldom met with in historical records after that time, they evidently did not sink into obscurity since as late as 1514 we find in the Ormond Deeds a judgement of the Liberty Court of Tipperary in which Terrelagh O'Slevin, together with an O'Donnell, is described as "pure Irish of the Irish nation" when charged with acquisition of lands contrary to statute; and again in the Survey of Co. Fermanagh made in 1603 Munter Slevins are cited as "carbes" (coarbs) of Killtyerman in the barony of Lurg.
It would appear that by the middle of the next century families of the name had become established in the midlands since Slevin is included among the principal Irish names in the barony of Farbill, Co. Westmeath, in the 1659 census. The name occurs at approximately the same date in the Hearth Money Rolls for Co. Armagh, Co. Donegal and Co. Tyrone. The forms used are O'Slavin, O'Sleaven, O'Sleivan, O'Sclevin and O'Slamman. Slamon is occasionally used in Co. Offaly, in the neighbourhood of Birr, as a synonym of Slavin.
The Chief Herald of Ireland was Gerard Slevin (Chief Herald 1954-1981, designed the flag of the European Union, lived 1919-1997).
(Celtic Ireland - Eoin MacNeill - The Academy Press Dublin - 1921 - Professor Eoin MacNeill (1867-1945) was the leader of the Irish Volunteers, the man responsible for the countermanding order for the 1916 Rising and the founding father of the scientific study of early Irish history.)
Cenel Eoghain: The clan name of O'Neills etc. descended from Eoghan, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, located in Tyrone and south Derry. Niall of the Nine Hostages had three sons Eogan, Conall and Enda, each took possession of territory in western Ulster probably around A.D. 429 when their brother Loeguire became king of Ireland. The dynastic families that sprang from them, Cenel n-Eogain, Cenel Conaill and Cenel nEndai became known collectively as Ui Neill in Tuaiscirt (Niall's descendants of the North). Ailech, a prehistoric stone fortress, became the seat of the kings of Cenel nEogain. The original Tir Eoghain (Tyrone) was the peninsula now called Inis Eoghain. On the neck of this peninsula stands the fortress of Aileach.
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