A number of years ago - i received an email from a man by the name of 'philip cregeen' who lived out in New Zealand (exactly the same name as myself !) who told me that our surname infact comes from the Isle of Man.

His explanation was something like as follows : he said that when the English defeated the Spanish during the invasion by the Spanish Armada, the fleet sank off of the coast of the Isle of Man, and infact (at least) one sailor was called "Cregeen". Since they swam ashore, and fairly obviously became Manx citizens over time - he said this explains why this surname is very common in the Southern part of the Isle of Man.

Firstly I wanted to ask anybody who might have a Cregeen surname - if they are aware of any other historical explanations of the "root" of this surname, and secondly if anybody had heard this explanation before ?

Thankyou for any help.

Phil. (I am British but i presently live in Montreal Canada !)