Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Manacháin ‘descendant of Manachán’, a personal name representing a diminutive of manach ‘monk’. See also Monk. The Gaelic name is sometimes interpreted as if it were Ó Muineacháin ‘descendant of the little shrubbery’, and is sometimes translated as Thornton. Compare the place name Monaghan.