Finegan surname history

In Irish Finnegan is O Fionnagain, from Fionnagan, a diminutive of the popular personal name Fionn, meaning "fairhaired". It arose separately in two areas, on the borders of the present north Roscommon and north-east Galway, between the modern towns of Dunmore and Castlerea, and in the territory of Oriel taking in parts of the present counties of Monaghan, Cavan and Louth. Descendants of the Connacht family are still to be found in the ancestral homeland, but the majority of modern Finnegans are descended from the Ulster family, and the name remains particularly numerous in counties Cavan and Monaghan. It is now also common throughout Ireland, with the exception of the southern province of Munster.

A separate family, the Mac Fionnmhacain of Co. Clare, whose name has more usually been anglicised as Finucane or Kinucane, are also sometimes to be found as Finnegan.

In 1890 the surname was recorded around the two ancestral areas, in the Galway area and in counties Armagh, Cavan, Louth and Monaghan. At that time, it was reported that the spelling Finegan was most popular in Galway, Monaghan and Louth, while Finnegan was more frequent in Armagh and Cavan.

.Marion Finucane (1950 - ) is one of Ireland?s best contemporary broadcasters, providing a relaxed and impartial forum in which debate can flow freely. She was Radio Journalist of the Year in 1988.

The most famous person of the name is fictional. Tim Finnegan is the central character, if that?s not too precise a term, in James Joyce?s Finnegans Wake. The title comes from an old Dublin ballad.