Irish surname search
MacHugh
The Gaelic surname MacAodha, signifying the son of Aodh, I.e. Hugh, has acquired in the process of anglicization a great number of variants. These include MacKay, MacKee, MacCoy, Hughes, Hewson, Eason, etc., and also MacHugh - the name now under consideration. MacHugh in the form used by the Connacht sept which is of the same stock as the O'Flahertys: they were chiefs of the territory known as the barony of Clare in Co. Galway. In 1585, the date of the "Composition Book of Connacht", the MacHughs were not only there but in the barony of Athlone, Co. Roscommon, also. Nearly a century later the records of the Cromwellian settlement show that they were landowners in Co. Galway. To-day they are found all around that area and even beyond it - as far north as Leitrim and Fermanagh. Malachy MacHugh, Archbishop of Tuam (1313-1348), was of this branch of the sept. He is called Molassie MacHugh in the "annals of Clonmacnois", and in the "Annals of Loch Ce" we find an interesting entry indicating that he only became Bishop of Elphin in opposition to the nominee of the diocesan chapter.
MacHugo, a name not uncommon in Co. Galway, is not a variant if MacHugh, but one of the many gaelicized branches of the Burkes.