McFadden - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac Pháidín
Meaning: “son of little Pádraig”
Traditional stronghold: Donegal
Pronunciation: muck-FAD-en; Irish Mac Pháidín: mock FAW-jeen
History of the McFadden name
Mac Pháidín means son of Páidín, a pet form of Pádraig, so the name is essentially 'son of little Patrick'. It arose independently in Donegal, where it has always been most numerous, and in Scotland, where the same patronymic produced MacFadyen; some Irish McFaddens descend from Scottish gallowglass families who settled in Ulster. The name is strongly associated with the Rosses and Gweedore districts of west Donegal, and a branch was also established in north Mayo. Fr James McFadden of Gweedore, the 'Patriot Priest', became famous during the Land War of the 1880s. Emigration made the name common in Scotland, America and Australia.
Variants: MacFadden · McFadyen · McPadden
Famous bearers of the name
- Daniel McFadden - American economist of Irish descent who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000.
- Brian McFadden - Dublin singer who rose to fame with the pop group Westlife.
- Steve McFadden - English actor best known as Phil Mitchell in EastEnders.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Gallagher · Boyle · Doherty · Sweeney · O'Donnell · Duffy · McLoughlin · Mooney