Madden is the English form of the Gaelic Ó Madáin, "descendant of Madadhán," the surname of the O'Maddens who held Síol Anmchadha, a lordship of the Uí Maine on the Galway bank of the Shannon. Madden and O'Madden are one name, with and without the O, and you can browse every design in either spelling in the Madden & O'Madden Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Madden comes from Ó Madáin, built on Madadhán, a pet form of madadh, "a dog." The family descended from Madadhán, son of Gadhra Mór, who was slain in 1008, and held the chieftaincy of Síol Anmchadha until the middle of the seventeenth century. Their country was the barony of Longford in southeast County Galway, around Portumna and the north shore of Lough Derg, together with the parish of Lusmagh across the Shannon in County Offaly.
What Does the Madden Surname Mean?
In Rev. Patrick Woulfe's Irish Names and Surnames (1923) the headword is Ó Madáin, written in English as O Maddane, O Madden and Madden, "descendant of Madadhán." Madadhán is a diminutive of madadh, which Woulfe glosses plainly as "a dog," so the founding name amounts to "little dog." It was the personal name of a real ancestor before it became the family's surname.
Woulfe gives a second Irish spelling, Ó Madaidhín, anglicized O Maddine, O Madden and Madden. He calls it "always the popular form of the name" and found it "almost universal in the spoken language of Connacht." The medieval spelling Ó Madadháin is also used for the chiefs of Síol Anmchadha. The O simply means "descendant of," so Madden and O'Madden record the same inheritance; our guide to what the O and Mac prefixes mean in Irish names explains how the prefixes work.
Who Were the O'Maddens of Síol Anmchadha?
Woulfe calls the O'Maddens "a distinguished branch of the Uí Maine," the east Connacht people whose territory John O'Donovan's 1843 edition of their tribal customs styled "O'Kelly's country." The family is named from Madadhán, son of Gadhra Mór, slain in 1008. From the eleventh century, Woulfe writes, the chieftaincy of Síol Anmchadha "continued in almost unbroken succession in the family of O'Madden" down to the middle of the seventeenth century.
Síol Anmchadha was a lordship within Uí Maine, centered on what became the barony of Longford. At its widest it took in the land between the Shannon and the Suck, the west shore of Lough Derg and a corridor across the Shannon called Lusmagh. Woulfe describes the O'Madden lands as "the barony of Longford, in the south-east of Co. Galway, and the parish of Lusnagh, on the other side of the Shannon, in the present Offaly."
This Longford has nothing to do with the midland county of the same name. The placenames database logainm.ie lists An Longfort as a barony of County Galway, with the town of Portumna inside it. Across the river, Lusmagh is a civil parish in the Offaly barony of Garrycastle, a name John O'Donovan explained in 1837 as "plain of the herbs." The barony name comes from the Irish longphort, which O'Donovan rendered as "a fortress," and the O'Madden seat there appears in 1612 as the "manor and castle of Longford."
How Did the O'Madden Lordship End?
By the early seventeenth century the O'Madden chief was using English law to pass on his land. In 1612 Donal O'Madden, "captain of his nation," settled his manor and castle of Longford and all his other Galway estates on his son and heir, Anmchadh, or Ambrose, O'Madden, in tail male. Ambrose died in 1637 and was succeeded by his son, John O'Madden.
The Cromwellian conquest broke that settlement. In 1651 land belonging to the Madden, Kelly, Burke and other families of the district was appropriated, and John O'Madden lost his property. Part of it was restored in 1677 by grant under the Act of Settlement. Five of the name were attainted in 1691, a generation after the O'Madden chieftaincy of Síol Anmchadha, held since the eleventh century, had come to an end.
Is Every Madden an O'Madden of Galway?
Not every one. Woulfe treats the O'Maddens of County Antrim, "formerly called O Maddegane," as a probably distinct family, so an Antrim Madden line calls for its own research. He also saw reason to link the Anglo-Irish Maddens, formerly of Baggotrath near Dublin, to the O'Maddens of Síol Anmchadha. A very rare offshoot of the Galway family, Ó Madaidh, became Maddy rather than Madden. In Connacht, where Woulfe heard Ó Madaidhín in everyday Irish, the name belongs to the Síol Anmchadha family.
Where Is the Madden Name Found in Ireland?
The historic heartland is the Shannon border country: the barony of Longford, with Portumna on Lough Derg, and Lusmagh on the Offaly bank. Woulfe's note that the popular Irish form was almost universal in spoken Connacht Irish in 1923 shows how firmly the name was tied to the west. Dublin had Madden families of its own as well, among them the physician John Madden (d. 1703), one of the original members of the Irish College of Physicians, and the silk manufacturer Edward Madden (1739–1829), whose son Richard Robert Madden became the historian of the United Irishmen.
How Can I Research Madden Family History?
- IrishGenealogy.ie: civil registers of births, marriages and deaths; search both Madden and O'Madden, since a family can switch between them.
- National Archives of Ireland census: the 1901 and 1911 returns, useful for comparing Madden households in east Galway with those in west Offaly.
- Griffith's Valuation: mid-nineteenth-century occupiers, the easiest way to tie a Madden tenant to a townland in the barony of Longford or the parish of Lusmagh.
- National Library of Ireland parish registers: Catholic baptisms and marriages for the Galway and Offaly parishes along the Shannon.
- logainm.ie barony of Longford: the fifteen civil parishes of the barony and their townlands, with historic spellings.
- PRONI: for the separate O'Madden family of County Antrim.
In older documents, look for O Maddane and O Maddine as well as Madden and O'Madden, the forms Woulfe collected from the records.
Notable Irish Bearers of the Madden Name
- Madadhán (d. 1008), son of Gadhra Mór, the ancestor from whom the O'Maddens of Síol Anmchadha take their name.
- Donal O'Madden (fl. 1612), "captain of his nation," who settled the manor and castle of Longford on his son Ambrose.
- Samuel Molyneux Madden (1686–1765), "Premium Madden," born in Dublin and a clergyman in County Fermanagh, whose 1730 plan of premiums for learning was adopted by Trinity College Dublin. He wrote Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733) and Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland (1738), and died at Manor Waterhouse, County Fermanagh.
- Richard Robert Madden (1798–1886), born at Wormwood Gate, Dublin, a surgeon who served as a special magistrate in Jamaica and as commissioner for liberated Africans in Cuba, gave evidence for the Africans of the Amistad, and wrote The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times (1842–6).
Frequently Asked Questions About the Madden Name
What is Madden in Irish?
Ó Madáin is the standard Irish form. Woulfe records Ó Madaidhín as the everyday spoken form in Connacht, and the medieval chiefs are often written Ó Madadháin.
Is Madden the same name as O'Madden?
Yes. Woulfe lists O Madden and Madden as English forms of the same Irish name. The O means "descendant of," and families kept it or dropped it over the generations.
What county is the Madden family from?
County Galway, in the southeast of the county: the barony of Longford around Portumna. The O'Madden lands also crossed the Shannon into the parish of Lusmagh, now in County Offaly.
What does the name Madden mean?
"Descendant of Madadhán," a pet form of madadh, the Irish word for a dog.
Who were the chiefs of Síol Anmchadha?
The O'Maddens. They held the chieftaincy from the eleventh century until the middle of the seventeenth, as a branch of the Uí Maine of east Connacht.
Give the Longford and Lusmagh story a place at home with the woven blanket, mug, pennant, garden flag and ornaments in our Madden & O'Madden Irish family gifts collection.