Mac Eacháin is an

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

. It is the

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

form of the

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

''Eachán''. The

''Eachán'' is

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

of the personal name ''Eachaidh'', which is derived from ''each'', meaning ''

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

''. Anglicised forms of the surname include McGahan (or MacGahan),

Gahan Gahan (and its variant Gahame) is a surname with several different origins. One origin of the surname is from a reduced form of '' McGahan'', which is in turn an Anglicised form of the Irish language '' Mac Eacháin'', meaning "son of ''Eachá ...

, McCaughan, and McGaffin (or MacGaffin).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Eachain Irish-language masculine surnames Patronymic surnames Irish families Surnames of Irish origin