Family name origins & meanings
- Irish (Cork) : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an tSionnaigh ‘son of the fox’, from sionnach, presumably applied as a nickname. This name is often translated as Fox.
- Irish (Cork) : according to Woulfe, a reduced Anglicized form of Ó Sionaigh, a variant of Ó Seanaigh (whence Shanny) ‘descendant of Seanach’, from a personal name meaning ‘old’, ‘wise’. However, it was understood as Ó Sionnaigh ‘descendant of fox’ and often translated as Fox in Connacht.