At 1:36:00 AM on Thursday, November 10, 2005, Patrick Ryan
wrote:
> Ryan, by the way, means 'king'.
Hereditary surnames don't have meanings; what you're talking
about is the etymology. The English surname <Ryan> can in
fact represent any of several Irish surnames, including <Ó
Riagháin>, <Ó Riain>, <Ó Maoil Riain>, <Ó Ruaidhín>, and <Ó
Ruadháin>, though the first two are, I believe, much the
most common sources. <Ó Riain> is from earlier <ua Ríáin>
'male descendant of Ríán'; to the extent that <Ryan> has a
meaning, that's it (for those instances that are Englished
from <Ó Riain>). <Ríán> itself is simply a masculine
idionym. It's clearly a diminutive in <-án>, most likely of
<rí> 'king', though the name <Rígán> is the expected
diminutive.
Brian