Flynn

also O'Flynn, Ó Floinn

The reddish one, across three Ó Floinn septs.

Origin: Connacht, Ireland
Famous bearer: Errol Flynn (1909–1959), Hollywood actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood)
Register: Irish family

Territory of Flynn

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Flynn

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Flynn community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Flynn has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Flynn clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Flynn name mean?

From Ó Floinn, descendant of Flann ('reddish' or 'ruddy'). At least three distinct Ó Floinn lines: the Connacht Ó Floinn of north-east Roscommon (the principal sept), the Munster Ó Floinn of north Cork around the river Bregog, and the Ulster Ó Floinn of east Antrim (a sub-sept of the O'Neill confederation). All Anglicised as Flynn. The personal name Flann itself was widely current in early Christian Ireland, the high king Flann Sinna (d. 916) is its most famous bearer.

The history of Flynn

The Connacht Ó Floinn were chiefs of Síol Maoil Ruain in north Roscommon, with their seat at Castlerea. The Munster Ó Floinn held Muskerry-Flin around modern Coachford in Cork; the Ulster Ó Floinn, distinct again, held lands around Larne in modern Antrim. All three lines lost political ground in the Tudor and Cromwellian confiscations, and the surname Anglicised to Flynn across the board by the 18th century. Modern Flynn is densest in Connacht, particularly Mayo and Roscommon, but distributed across the island.

Errol Flynn (1909–1959), the Hobart, Tasmania-born actor of Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain of the Clouds, was Hollywood's foremost swashbuckling lead of the 1930s and 40s, descended from a Carlow-Flynn emigrant family on his father's side. Vince Flynn (1966–2013), the St Paul, Minnesota-born thriller novelist of the Mitch Rapp series, was Connacht-Irish-Flynn. Jerome Flynn (b. 1963), the Bromley-born actor, played Bronn in Game of Thrones across all eight seasons.

Champions of the Flynn name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Errol Flynn
The Hobart marine-biologist's son who roamed the western Pacific in his twenties, came to England for the repertory stage, was cast as Captain Blood at twenty-six, and became the definitive swashbuckling Hollywood lead of the late 1930s and 1940s.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Flynn name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk Dunluce Castle in 1600Enter →

The MacDonnell stronghold on its Antrim sea-stack, whole and inhabited — Clan Donald astride the North Channel.

Step Into History · New

Walk Blarney Castle in 1500Enter →

The MacCarthy lords' great tower-house in its prime — the battlements and the famous stone, high over wooded Muskerry.

Notable bearers of the Flynn name

Errol Flynn (1909–1959), Hollywood actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood)
Vince Flynn (1966–2013), thriller novelist (Mitch Rapp series)
Jerome Flynn (b. 1963), actor (Game of Thrones)

Stories of Flynn

Errol Flynn in Captain Blood
1935
On the evening of Tuesday the twenty-sixth of December 1935, at the Strand Theatre on Broadway in New York City, the Warner Bros. swashbuckling-adventure feature Captain Blood opened on the holiday-week release schedule with the twenty-six-year-old completely-unknown Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn in the title role of Peter Blood, the seventeenth-century Irish-physician-turned-pirate-captain of Rafael Sabatini's 1922 historical novel. Flynn had been signed by Warner Bros. nine months earlier in March 1935 to the standard junior-stock-company seven-year contract at one hundred and fifty dollars per week on the strength of a single screen-test at the Warner Burbank lot, had been a contract-player extra in two minor Warner pictures across the spring of 1935 (a small uncredited role in Murder at Monte Carlo and the second-male-lead in The Case of the Curious Bride), and had been cast in the Captain Blood lead at the recommendation of the Curtiz casting-and-direction team only after the Warner first-choice Robert Donat had withdrawn from the production at the late-September pre-production stage on the strength of his asthma. Flynn was the second-or-third-choice replacement, was effectively unknown to the December 1935 American audience, and walked on to the Strand Theatre screen on the Boxing Day evening with no advance reputation. By the end of the two-hour-and-nineteen-minute Curtiz-directed Captain Blood the audience at the Strand had recognised the central single American Hollywood swashbuckling lead of the next decade. The film grossed $1.5 million on its release (the third-highest Warner Bros. gross of 1935), made Flynn an instant Hollywood star, established the Flynn-De Havilland on-screen pairing that would carry across the next nine films through Robin Hood (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941) and the rest of the Flynn-Warner contract.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Flynn mean?

Where does the Flynn family come from?

The Flynn family is rooted in Connacht, in Ireland. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Roscommon. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Flynn family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Flynn name has been concentrated in Mayo, Cork and Antrim. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Flynn a Ireland surname?

Yes, Flynn is a Ireland surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Ireland, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Flynn surname?

The Connacht Ó Floinn were chiefs of Síol Maoil Ruain in north Roscommon, with their seat at Castlerea. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Flynn name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Flynn family known for?

The reddish one, across three Ó Floinn septs. The Connacht Ó Floinn were chiefs of Síol Maoil Ruain in north Roscommon, with their seat at Castlerea.

Who is the most famous Flynn?

The best-known bearer of the Flynn name is Errol Flynn (1909–1959), Hollywood actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood). Other prominent figures of the family include Vince Flynn (1966–2013), thriller novelist (Mitch Rapp series) and Jerome Flynn (b. 1963), actor (Game of Thrones).

Who are some famous Flynns?

Notable bearers of the Flynn name include Errol Flynn (1909–1959), Hollywood actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood), Vince Flynn (1966–2013), thriller novelist (Mitch Rapp series) and Jerome Flynn (b. 1963), actor (Game of Thrones). Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Flynn family?

The Flynn family is associated with Errol Flynn in Captain Blood. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Errol Flynn in Captain Blood?

On the evening of Tuesday the twenty-sixth of December 1935, at the Strand Theatre on Broadway in New York City, the Warner Bros. swashbuckling-adventure feature Captain Blood opened on the holiday-week release schedule with the twenty-six-year-old completely-unknown Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn in the title role of Peter Blood, the seventeenth-century Irish-physician-turned-pirate-captain of Rafael Sabatini's 1922 historical novel. The event is dated to 1935.

Is O'Flynn the same family as Flynn?

Yes. O'Flynn is a historical spelling variant of the Flynn name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is Ó Floinn the same family as Flynn?

Yes. Ó Floinn is a historical spelling variant of the Flynn name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Flynn surname found today?

Ireland is the primary historical home of the Flynn surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Ireland origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Flynn family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Flynn family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Ireland so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Flynn family today?

The seat for the head of the Flynn family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.