McCloskey - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac Bhloscaidh
Meaning: son of Bloscadh
Traditional stronghold: Derry
Pronunciation: mick-KLOSS-kee; Irish Mac Bhloscaidh: mock VLOSS-kee
History of the McCloskey name
McCloskey, Mac Bhloscaidh, is a branch of the great O'Kane (Ó Catháin) sept of County Derry, taking its name from Bloskey O'Kane, a twelfth-century member of that family. The McCloskeys multiplied in the Roe Valley around Dungiven, where the name became one of the most numerous in the county, and it remains overwhelmingly associated with Derry and the adjacent parts of Antrim and Tyrone. Emigration carried it to America in strength, where the family gave the Catholic Church its first American cardinal. McCloskey, McClosky and McCluskey are all the same name.
Variants: McClosky · McCluskey · MacCloskey
Famous bearers of the name
- John McCloskey - Archbishop of New York who in 1875 became the first American cardinal.
- Pete McCloskey - Maverick California congressman who challenged Nixon in 1972 and co-chaired the first Earth Day.
- Deirdre McCloskey - Influential American economist and historian of the Bourgeois trilogy.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Connor · Doherty · McLoughlin · Kane · Quigley · Harkin · Mullan · Hegarty