Slane

Slane is not a surname I've ever come across...until today.  Therefore, to find that a company is called Slane and Slane made me take notice.  Apparently Slane is an Irish surname, and one that arises from the name of a place - Slane, obviously.  This is unusual, the Surname Data Base informs me; there are only twenty such coming out of Ireland.

Slane is a place in County Meath, and is situated on the river Boyne.  It's an interesting, though small, place, and has historic sites dating back around 5,000 years.  There are a couple of good stories relating to St Patrick and the hill of Slane, though whether they have any historical basis is another question.  However, Patrick did appoint a Bishop in Slane, and the place was a centre of Christian learning for several centuries.

The well-known hymn, Be Thou My Vision, is apparently set to a tune called Slane. The song's original words were about the hill of Slane.

Seemingly one of the first Irish settlers in America was a Grace Slane, who embarked from Belfast in Ireland on June 11th, 1847.  It would be interesting to know whether she was an ancestor of the two women who run Slane and Slane, though it's likely her surname was lost when she married.

I thought I'd check out to see if the name Slane came up in my Evernote clippings, and surprisingly it did. Chris Slane is a New Zealand cartoonist.  You can see some examples of his work here.