This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Gernegan.' The second 'n' is excrescent; compare Pottinger and Messinger for Potager and Messager. In some documents bearing the seal of Queen Elizabeth (1572), concerning the town of Yarmouth, Sir Henry Jerningham, knight, is set down as' Sir Henry Jernegam' not less than three times; v. FF. xi. 288-91. Blomefield says, 'That Jernegan was anciently a Christian name is very true, as numerous records prove. In 1195, there was a fine levied of lands in Edricheston, in Warwickshire, between Reginald de Claverdon and Gernagan his brother, and about this time it was a common name in France, as we find from Lobineau, in his History of Britain (i. 105), where Jernegon de Pontchasteau and some others of the name are mentioned' (FF. ii. 411).

Jernegan Fitz-Hugh, 1180, Norfolk: History of Norfolk.

Walter Gernegan, Suffolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Gernegon, Norfolk, ibid.

1675. Francis Jernegan (Norfolk) and Anna Blount: Marriage Alleg. (Canterbury).

1767. Married — William Jerningham and Frances Dillon: St. George, Hanover Square.

(A. - French - Teutonic) the Middle English Jernegan, Gernegon, French Gernig- on, apparently the Old Teutonic Gernwig = Eager Warrior [O.H.Ger. gern = Old Saxon gern = Old English ge(o)rn, eager, willing + Old Teutonic wíg- (Anglo-Saxon wíga), warrior; wíg, war, battle] + the French diminutive suff. -on.

William Gernegon.—Hundred Rolls

Lord Stafford's ancestors wrote themselves Jernegan till the XVI. cent., when the name was corrupted to Jerningham. "The first that I meet with of this family was called Hugh, without any other addition, whose son was named Jernegan Fitz-Hugh, or the son of Hugh; he is mentioned in the Castle-Acre priory register, and he died about 1182." Kimber's Baronetage. His successors took the baptismal name Jernegan as their surname, and continued to use it until the period above-named.

JERNEGAN: An old personal name of Norman introduction.

Or Jernegan, descends from the Lords of Pont- chateau, Bretagne, of whom Daniel le Rich was living, c. 1020, and Jamegan Fitz-Daniel, who also witnessed a charter in 1060 (Lobineau, Hist. Bret. ii. 171). The latter had, 1, Daniel Fitz-Jarnegan, Lord of Pont-chateau, 1080, ancestor of that noble family (Des Bois); 2, Ludovicus Fitz-Jarnegan, who witnessed a charter, 1065 (Morice, H. B, preuves, i. 426); 3, Jarnegan. The latter occurs in Bretagne, 1083, as ‘Jarnegan forestarius’ (Morice, 457), and in 1086 held lands as Jarnacot, Suffolk. Hugo his son had Hubert de Jarnegan, 1165 (Liber Niger), of Suffolk, whence the Jerninghams, Lords Stafford.