FamilyEducation.com
   
 

First name origin & meaning:

Irish: Eager aide

First name variations: Gallagher, Gallagher

Last name origins & meanings:

  1. Irish: reduced form of McGahan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eacháin, ‘son of Eachán’.
  2. Irish: in Leinster, a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gaoithin ‘descendant of Gaoithín’, a personal name from a diminutive of gaoth, an adjective meaning ‘wise’ (probably the sense here) or a noun meaning ‘wind’; hence in Connacht the name is sometimes ‘translated’ as Wynne or Wyndham. Occasionally it may be an Anglicized form of Mac Gaoithín ‘son of Gaoithín’, although this is more commonly found as McGeehan, an Ulster name.