My grandmother (Nancy Catherine O'Nan Phillips) had Huguenot ancestors from Virginia. Their original name was Aunant, and they were from Nimes in southern France. In this country and in England, the surname appears as Onan or O'Nan, but they were not Irish. Both "Aunant" and "Onan" are found in the same document in England (before they came here). In Kentucky in the early 1800s, some remained Protestants and some were Catholics. They spalled the men's given name as "Denis," using the French spelling. Mary Jane Phillips-Matz