Mangan — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Mongáin
Meaning: 'descendant of the well-haired one'
Traditional stronghold: Limerick, Mayo
Pronunciation: MANG-gan; Irish Ó Mongáin: oh MUNG-awn
History of the Mangan name
Mangan is Ó Mongáin, from mongach, meaning 'abundantly haired' or 'maned'. Distinct septs of the name arose in County Mayo, near the Moy, and in Limerick and Cork, and the modern distribution still reflects those separate origins, with Mongan surviving as the older anglicisation in Connacht. The surname owes its lustre above all to James Clarence Mangan, the haunted Dublin poet of Dark Rosaleen, who died in the cholera epidemic of famine-era 1849 and whom Yeats and Joyce both honoured as a founding voice of Irish national literature.
Variants: Mongan · Mangin · O'Mangan
Famous bearers of the name
- James Clarence Mangan — Dublin poet of Dark Rosaleen, a tragic genius of nineteenth-century Irish letters.
- Stephen Mangan — British actor and comedian born to Irish parents.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Brien · Ryan · Walsh · Burke · Collins · Fitzgerald · Hayes · Sheehan