McMahon (surname)

McMahon or MacMahon (/məkˈmæn/ mək-MAN or /məkˈmɑːn/ mək-MAHN; older Irish orthography: Mac Mathghamhna; reformed Irish orthography: Mac Mathúna; meaning "son of the bear")[1] is an Irish surname.

The surname came into use around the 11th century by two different Irish clans: The MacMahons of Thomond, a sept of the Dál gCais, and the MacMahons of Oriel, rulers of Airgíalla. Additionally, a separate McMahon family in County Fermanagh is descended from Mahon Maguire, a grandson of Donn Carrach Maguire.[2] According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the MacMahons were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCais or Dalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.[3]

McMahon or MacMahon is the surname of the following people:

  1. ^ "McMahon Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms". HouseOfNames. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  2. ^ "Irish names". The Irish Times.
  3. ^ Cairney, C. Thomas (1989). Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland. Jefferson, North Carolina, United States, and London: McFarland & Company. pp. 61–69. ISBN 0899503624.