Corrigan - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Corragáin
Meaning: “little spear”
Traditional stronghold: Fermanagh
Pronunciation: KOR-ig-an; Irish O Corragain: oh KOR-a-gawn
History of the Corrigan name
Corrigan derives from O Corragain, likely meaning 'descendant of the spear-like one' or connected to corr, meaning odd or pointed. The sept was centred in the border counties of Fermanagh, Monaghan and Cavan, part of the wider Oriel region of south Ulster, and the surname remains most densely found there today. It is a purely Gaelic surname with no significant separate origin, unlike many Ulster names that were reshaped through anglicisation into unrelated English words. Bearers spread from this Ulster heartland into neighbouring Leitrim and Louth over the centuries, but the name has stayed a distinctly south-Ulster and border-county surname.
Variants: Cregan · Corrigan · O'Corrigan
Famous bearers of the name
- Mairead Corrigan Maguire - Belfast peace activist, co-founder of the Community of Peace People and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
- Douglas Corrigan - American aviator of Irish descent nicknamed 'Wrong Way Corrigan' after his 1938 unauthorised transatlantic flight
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Maguire · Flanagan · Cassidy · Lennon · McManus · Devine · Heaney · Keenan