Eagan

Eagan is the transferred use of an Irish surname into a masculine personal name.  In its original Gaelic form, Eagan (Anglicized) comes from Mac Aodhagáin meaning “son of Aodha” – Aodha meaning “fire” –ultimately in reference to Áed, the ancient Celtic god of fire. The personal name Aodhán was also borne by several ancient High Kings of Ireland as well as a few important early Irish saints. The older Gaelic versions of the name were relatively common during Antiquity and the early medieval period. Probably the most famous Irishman named Aidan (in its most modern Irish form) was the 7th century Saint Aidan of Iona (Scotland) who went on to establish a monastery in Northumbria (England), credited with bringing Christianity to the pagan Saxons. As a pre-17th century Irish clan name, the Mac Egan family was located in the sub-kingdom of the Uí Maine in southeast Connacht on the banks of the Shannon River. They were a well-known clan of hereditary lawyers to the ruling families of the Kingdom of Connacht.  Later, after the subjugation of the Old Gaelic order by the British, the clan name morphed into Keegan/Keagan and, more simply, Egan.  The first recorded reference to this old surname was rendered as M’Egan in the early 13th century in County Clare (when an Irish woman was married to an Anglo-Norman landowner).  As a masculine given name, Eagan is not common.