Irish Family Names M
O'MADDEN, MADIGAN, MacAVADDY
NAME ON MAP: O'MADADHAIN MODERN IRISH NAME: O'Madáin MODERN COUNTY: Galway MEANING: `descendant of Mhadaigh'. (The name probably derived from mhadaigh `of a hound'.)
MacMAHON, MOHAN, VAUGHAN
NAMES ON MAP: MacMATHGHAMHA, MacMAHONA MODERN IRISH NAME: MacMahúna MODERN COUNTIES: Clare, Monaghan MEANING: there were two unrelated septs: that in Co. Clare meant `son of Mathghamha', of whom nothing is known. (The name meant `bear'.) The sept in Co. Monaghan claimed descent from Mahon, son of Murtagh Mór O'Brien, High-King of Ireland, who died in 1119.
O'MAHONY
NAME ON MAP: O'MATHGHAMHA MODERN IRISH NAME: O'Mathghamba MODERN COUNTY: Cork MEANING: `descendant of Mathghamha'. He was a grandson of Brian Boru and was killed with Brian at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. See the entries for O'Brien and MacMahon.
O'MALLEY, MAILEY
NAME ON MAP: O'MAILLE MODERN COUNTY: Mayo MEANING: `descendant of Máille'. (The name derived from mál- `prince' and meant `nobleman'.) The family gained a great reputation as seafarers.
O'MALONE
NAME ON MAP: O'MAOILEOIN MODERN COUNTY: Offaly MEANING: `descendant of Maoleoin'. (The name, deriving from maol `bald, tonsured', meant `devotee or follower of Eion `St John''.) The sept was a branch of the Connacht O'Connors and as befits its name provided many abbots and bishops of Clonmacnoise.
MacMANUS
NAME ON MAP: MacMAGHNUIS MODERN COUNTIES: Fermanagh, Roscommon MEANING: `son of Maghnus'. The Roscommon sept claimed descent from Maghnus, who died in 1181 and was the son of Turlogh O`Connor, King of Ireland. The Fermanagh sept was unrelated. Magnus (LATIN `great') was much used as a royal name in Norway and Denmark. King Magnus I of Norway, died 1047, was actually so-christened by mistake: his father much admired Charlemagne the Great, styled in Latin Carolus Magnus, and his advisers took the adjective Magnus to be a proper name.
O'MEAGHER
NAME ON MAP: O'MEACHAIR MODERN COUNTIES: Tipperary, Offaly MEANING: `descendant of Meachar'. (The name meant `hospitable'.)
O'MEEHAN
NAME ON MAP: O'MIACHACHAIN MODERN IRISH NAME: O'Miadhacháin MODERN COUNTY: Leitrim MEANING: `descendant of Miadhachán'. (The name derived from miadhach `honourable' and the diminutive suffix án.) Denis O'Miadhacháin was recorded as Bishop of Achonry in 1285. Originally from Desmond (South Munster) and of the same stock as the MacCarthys, the sept had moved north to Co. Leitrim by the end of the 11th century.
O'MOLLOY, MULLOY
NAME ON MAP: O'MAOLMHUAIDH MODERN COUNTY: Offaly MEANING: `descendant of Maolmhuadh'. (The name derived from maol `chieftain' and muadh `proud'.) Albin O'Molloy, died 1223, was one of the bishops who officiated at the coronation of King Richard the Lionheart in England in 1189. A less important O'Molloy sept derived its name from O'Maoil Aoidh `descendant of a follower of St Aedh'; compare the entry for O'Malone.
O'MORAN
NAME ON MAP: O'MORAIN MODERN COUNTY: Mayo MEANING: `descendant of Moran'. (The name derived from mór `big'.) The name of an unrelated sept in Galway, O'Moghráin, is also anglicized to Moran.
O'MORE, MOORE
NAME ON MAP: MORA MODERN COUNTY: Leix MEANING: The majority of O'Mores and Moores derive their name from the Anglo-Norman de Móra family who settled in Ireland soon after the 1170 invasion. (The name came from OLD ENGLISH mor `fen'.) Some O'Mores, however, are really of the O'Mórdha `descendant of Mórdha' sept. (The name meant `proud, noble'.) Mórdha was believed to be 21st in descent from the legendary Conal Cearnach of the Red Branch.
O'MORIARTY
NAME ON MAP: O'MUIRCHEARTAIGH MODERN COUNTY: Kerry MEANING: `descendant of Muircheartach'. (The name derived from muir `sea' and ceardach `skilled'.) In spite of one of their chiefs marrying a Fitzgerald in 1210, the sept's influence declined steadily after the Anglo-Norman invasion.
O'MULDOON
NAME ON MAP: O'MAOLDAIN MODERN COUNTY: Fermanagh MEANING: `descendant of Maoldún'. (The name meant maol `chief' dún `fortress'.) The most important sept were styled in The Annals of Loch Cé as Kings of Lurg before being dominated by the MacGuires.
O'MULLIGAN
NAME ON MAP: O'MAOLAGAIN MODERN COUNTY: Donegal MEANING: descendant of Maolán'. (The name was probably a diminutive of maol `bald' meaning `a tonsured, devout person'.) The sept was later displaced from Donegal to Mayo and Monaghan during the Ulster Plantations in the 17th century.
O'MULRIAN, RYAN
NAME ON MAP: O'MAOILRIAGHAIN MODERN IRISH NAME: O'Maolriain MODERN COUNTY: Tipperary MEANING: `descendant of Maolríaghain'. (The name, deriving from maol `bald, tonsured', meant `devotee or follower of St Riághan'.)
MacMURRAY
NAME ON MAP: Mac GIOLLA MHUIRE MODERN COUNTY: Down MEANING: `son of servant of the Virgin Mary'. One sept of this name was recorded in County Down by the 14th century. The majority of modern Murrays, however, descend from Scottish Murrays who came to Ireland in the 17th century.
MacMURROUGH, MURPHY
NAME ON MAP: MacMURCHADHA MODERN IRISH NAME: O'Murchadha or MacMurchadha MODERN COUNTY: Wexford, Tyrone/Armagh MEANING: `son of Murchadha'. (The name derived from muir `sea' and cadh `warrior'.) The Wexford Murphys descend from Dermot MacMurrough (1110-71), himself was the grandson of a King Murchadha. Dermot was deposed as King of Leinster by Tiernan O'Rourke with Rory O'Connor's assistance after he had abducted O'Rourke's wife and precipitated the Norman invasion of 1069 by asking for Norman help to regain his kingdom. See the entries for O'Connor, O'Rourke, Kavanagh and Kinsella. The separate Ulster Murphys were forced from Tyrone to Armagh by the O`Neills. The Murphys in Cork and Kerry (not shown on the map as the sept was not important in 1300) were long thought to be descended from the Wexford sept, but probably descend from an unrecorded Munster ancenstor.