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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Sceacháin or Ó Sceacháin ‘son (or ‘descendant’) of Sceachán’, a personal name which appears to be derived from a diminutive of sceach ‘briar’, ‘thorn bush’. The Gaelic name has sometimes been ‘translated’ as Thornton.

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