Frequency: (5206)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English (Lancashire): habitational name from a place near Warrington, which is of uncertain etymology. There was formerly an ancient burial mound there and Ekwall has speculated that the name is a shortened form of a British name composed of the elements crūc ‘mound’ + a personal name cognate with Welsh Einion (see Eynon).
2. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Coinín ‘son of Coinín’, a byname based on a diminutive of cano ‘wolf’, also Anglicized as Cunneen. The similarity to coinín ‘rabbit’, a later borrowing, has also caused it to be ‘translated’ as rabbit.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
