MCCAUGHEY
Recorded variant spellings include Mc Caughey, Mccaughey
McCaughey is an Irish surname of Gaelic origin. The name is a patronymic, derived from the Gaelic personal name Mac Eachaidh, which means “son of Eachaidh”. The personal name Eachaidh itself is based on the Gaelic word each, meaning “horse”, and was used as a personal name in early Irish society.
The traditional spelling MacEachaidy was later Anglicised to forms such as McCaughey, McGaughey and McGaughie. In the Ulster branch of the family the Gaelic spelling was Mac Eachain or Mac Eachaidh, with the personal name further simplified to Aghy or Oghy. These forms were recorded in 1685 in County Tyrone and continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with a variety of spellings such as McGahy, McGauhy, McGahey and McGaffey.
The surname is predominantly associated with the province of Ulster, where it has long been found in County Tyrone, County Armagh, County Antrim and County Down. Earlier instances appear in the parish of Carmoney, County Antrim, where a specimen named Jas. M'Gachy was christened on 25 May 1709 during the reign of Queen Anne.
Records of the name date back to the early eighteenth century. For example, in 1711 the name appears as Elizabeth McGahy, in 1719 as John McGaihy, and in 1846 as Jane McGahey. These early entries illustrate the variety of spellings that have persisted: McGaughey, McGaughie, McGauhy, McGahey, McGahy, McGaffey, Megahey, Gaffey and others, yet all trace back to the original Gaelic patronymic.
In the modern era the surname has spread beyond Ireland. In the United States it is mostly concentrated in the Midwest and the Northeast, with significant numbers in Ohio—where it ranks 55th in popularity—alongside Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. In Canada it is most common in Ontario, followed by Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. Smaller communities of McCaughey can also be found in New Zealand, as well as in parts of Northern and Eastern Europe.
The persistence of the surname across centuries and continents underscores its deep roots in Irish linguistic heritage and the enduring legacy of the ancient Ulster clans from which it originated.
Typical given names associated with the McCaughey surname
Male
- David
- James
- John
- Michael
- Patrick
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Thomas
- William
Female
- Anne
- Catherine
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Helen
- Karen
- Kerry
- Laura
- Margaret
- Mary
- Maxine
- Nicola
- Rita
- Sarah
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname McCaughey in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 690 people named McCaughey in the UK. That makes it roughly the 9,800th most common surname in Britain. Around 11 in a million people in Britain are named McCaughey.
Surname type: From name of parent
Origin: Celtic
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Ireland
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: Gaelic
Famous people named McCaughey
- Martin McCaughey - Provisional IRA member (1967 to 1990)
- Davis McCaughey - -Australian Bible scholar, Christian minister, university administrator and Governor of Victoria (1914 to 2005)
- Seán McCaughey - IRA member (1915 to 1946)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.