A loganberry is a hybrid plant obtained by crossing the red raspberry with the blackberry, cultivated for its edible fruit. The originator of this fruit was a Californian judge, J. H. Logan, and it was first grown in 1881.
This name (Logan) is of several origins in Ireland - Norman de Logan; Scottish Logan; and Gaelic-Irish O Leoghain as a variant of Lohan (Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ireland). Elsewhere Mac Lysaght gives O'LOHAN, (O) LOGAN, Lohan is also spelt Loghan and Loughan and these have also been confused with Logan. O Leochain in Irish, it was apparently sometimes called Logan by the Anglo-Norman officials in the 13th century.
The Scottish Logan is from a place name and derives from the Scottish-Gaelic logan, "little hollow". Woulfe's earlier Sloinnte Gaedhael is gall gives the original Irish as O Leochain, but offers no explanation, nor indeed do his successors, de Bhulbh or Mac Lysaght. The latter, however, follows Woulfe who wrote that O Leochain "has been ridiculously anglicised" as Duck (lacha, duck). There is but a single Duck entry in the telephone directories of Ireland, that being north of the Border, and is likely to be the English surname, "duck (breeder/ seller), or for some baffling reason".
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters lists nine persons named O Leochain, lords of both Tuath Luighne and Gailenga between 992 and 1051. Gailenga, betimes Gailenga Mora, came to name the barony of Morgallion, while Tuath Luighne became the barony of Lune, both in Co Meath. The Justiciary Rolls (1303-1314) reports a hearing in Dublin in 1310 when Walter Loghan was among the jury.
This related to "thieves who came late at night to the archbishop's mill near Tauelagh (Tamhlacht, Tallaght, Co Dublin) and broke the mill, that they might steal corn and other goods found there, and the miller, who heard them break the mill . . . went out by a secret way and went to the town of Tauelagh and came to a house where there was a tavern and men drinking, and immediately related to them how thieves were in the mill, and all in the said house . . . taking their arms went out and with haste came to the mill . . ."
James Logan is on a list of persons noted in Cork in 1311 for good service, while the following year at Meath, William Loghan was one of two sureties for Philip de la Loude regarding the killing of John de la Loude.
The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-03) lists William Loghan among those who received a grant of the late Abbey of the BVM Dublin in 1540, while in 1549 Thomas and Edmund Loghan of Bally negrey, kerns or idlemen, were among those granted a pardon. Richard Loggan was among the pardoned Bathes and Cusacks and others of Co Louth in 1582, and among the pardoned in 1593 was Hugh m'Teige e Loggan of Ballygerredane (Co Roscommon).
The "census" of 1659 lists Loggan among the principal Irish names in the Co Antrim baronies of Antrim, Belfast, Dunluce, Cary & Kilconway, and in the town and county of Carrickfergus. All three Logans in the 1814 Directory were in Ulster, and each is a plain Mr - not an Esquire among them. They were at Lime-kiln, Cookstown, Co Tyrone; Moher, Cashkerrigan, Co Leitrim, and Nowhead, Ballymena, Co Antrim.
The largest Logan holding in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) was the 1,118 acres in Co Mayo, the property of Lieut Col Logan, Barracks, Kinsale, Co Cork. Was he the Col Logan, c/o Messrs Stewarts & Kincaid's Office, 6 Leinster Street, Dublin, with 531 Co Sligo acres? Robert E. Logan (in the army) had a further 112 Sligo acres. There were modest holdings in counties Down, Antrim, Cork, with the 294 Co Meath, and the 440 Co Westmeath acres, belonging to Nicholas R. Logan, Smithstown, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
There are 46 Logan entries in the state's telephone directories, mainly in north Leinster and Donegal-Sligo. North of the Border there are approximately 400 entries. And might the above J.H. Logan of the loganberry, have any family connection with James Logan (1674-1751), the Irish botanist who gave his name to the word "loganiaceous"? This is defined as "Designating or pertaining to a family (Loganiaceae) of poisonous herbs, shrubs and trees of the order Gentianales, with opposite entire stipulate leaves and a cymose inflorescence of regular, perfect four- or five-parted flowers".
Loganstown in the Co Meath parish of Kilcooly is Baile Ui Leochain, "the town of O Leochain".