McCann is the anglicized form of the Gaelic Mac Cana, the name of the lords of Cinel Aonghusa, also called Clann Breasail, on the south shore of Lough Neagh in County Armagh. MacCann is the same name with the full Mac written out. Our McCann and MacCann Irish family gifts collection holds every spelling we stock, from McCann to the House of Maccann garden flag.
Quick answer: McCann comes from Mac Cana, which Rev. Patrick Woulfe gives as Mac Canna and explains as Mac Anna, “son of Annadh.” The family were lords of Clanbrassil beside Lough Neagh in north Armagh, within the Cenél nEógain world led by the O’Neills. Their lord Amhlaeibh Mac Cana was buried at Armagh in 1155, and the McCanns held Clanbrassil until the early seventeenth century.
What Does the McCann Name Mean?
In Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames the headword is Mac Canna, anglicized M’Canna, MacCann and MacKann, “son of Annadh.” Woulfe adds that the name is also written Mac Cana and, “more correctly,” Mac Anna, and his Mac Anna entry lists M’Anna and MacAnn among the English forms. On that reading the C at the start of Cann is the last sound of Mac, run together with the personal name Annadh.
A second explanation appears in most modern summaries. It takes the name at face value as Mac Cana, “son of Cana,” from a word meaning a cub or whelp, and the Wikipedia account of the Mac Cana notes that some writers read it as a term for a young warrior. Both readings lead to the same family and the same homeland, so the history below applies whichever derivation a McCann prefers.
Where Was the McCann Homeland?
Woulfe places the MacCanns precisely: they “were lords of Cinel Aonghusa, or Clann Breasail, on the south side of Lough Neagh, in Co. Armagh.” In English documents Clann Breasail became Clanbrassil. This is the low country along the lough shore in the north of the county, a long way from the south Armagh hills, and every reliable account of the family starts there.
The Mac Cana article, drawing on George Hill’s study of the Ulster land grants, adds detail on the later map. It describes a second McCann district, Clancann, between the River Bann and the River Blackwater, which became the barony of Oneilland West, while Clanbrassil, east of the Bann, became Oneilland East. The same source notes that an English map of the early 1600s marks a prominent Mac Cana house at Maghery, on the Lough Neagh shore.
The clearest trace on today’s map is Lurgan. Its older Irish name, Lorgain Bhaile Mhic Cana, anglicized Lurganvallivackan, means “the long low ridge of McCann’s settlement,” a form recorded by the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project and cited in the Wikipedia article on Lurgan. A busy Armagh town still carries the family’s name inside its own.
Who Were the Mac Cana Lords of Clanbrassil?
The McCanns belonged to the Cenél nEógain, the northern dynasty whose leading line was the O’Neills. The Annals of the Four Masters record under 1155 the death of Amhlaeibh Mac Cana, “lord of Cinel-Aenghusa,” whom the annalists called the “pillar of the chivalry” of all Cinel-Eoghain; he “was interred at Ard-Macha,” the church of Armagh. Twelve years later the same annals record that Muireadhach, the son of Mac Cana, was slain by the sons of Ua Lochlainn.
The Mac Cana lords held their territory under the O’Neills of Tyrone. The Mac Cana article describes them and their neighbors as vassals of the O’Neill dynasty, and the Lurgan article calls the McCanns “a sept of the O’Neills and lords of Clanbrassil until the early 17th century.” The annals style their head a lord, the ruler of a lough-shore territory within a larger northern dynasty, and that is the title the family should carry today.
What Happened to the McCanns in the Seventeenth Century?
The lordship ended with the Plantation of Ulster. After the Flight of the Earls, English Protestant settlers were planted on the Mac Cana lands along the lough shore, and the family lost the territory it had held since at least the twelfth century.
The dispossessed McCanns joined the rising of 1641. According to the Mac Cana article, which draws on S. C. Lutton’s history of Portadown, the Mac Cana retook Lurgan and Portadown that year, and about a hundred settlers were killed at Portadown. Toole McCann, named as the probable rebel commander there, was captured and executed in 1653, denying to the end that he had ordered the killings. The Act for the Settlement of Ireland of 1652 then displaced Irish rebels and Catholic landholders across the country.
Are McCann, MacCann and Cann the Same Name?
McCann, MacCann and Maccann are one name. Woulfe files MacCann under Mac Canna, and Mc and Mac are simply two ways of writing the Irish Mac, “son.” Old registers add M’Canna, MacKann and MacAnn, and all of them belong to the same Armagh family name.
Cann without the prefix is a different surname. It is an English name, found early in north Dorset and Cornwall and taken from the Dorset village of Cann or from Old English canne, according to the Wikipedia summary of the Cann surname. Woulfe does not list Cann among the forms of Mac Canna, so a Cann family is best researched as an English line unless its own records point to Armagh.
How Can I Trace McCann Ancestors?
Start from the most recent place your McCann family can be proven to have lived, then work back toward Armagh. Useful free collections include:
- IrishGenealogy.ie: state birth, marriage and death registers; search McCann and MacCann as separate spellings.
- National Archives of Ireland census, 1901 and 1911: household returns for all 32 counties, searchable by surname and townland.
- Griffith’s Valuation: the mid-nineteenth-century property survey that fixes a McCann tenant to a townland before emigration.
- National Library of Ireland Catholic parish registers: baptism and marriage entries that often predate civil registration.
- PRONI: the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, essential for Armagh estates, wills and church records around Lurgan and Lough Neagh.
- Place Names NI and logainm.ie: historic spellings of Armagh townland names such as Lurgan.
In older indexes, search M’Canna, MacKann and MacAnn as well as McCann, since clerks wrote the name the way they heard it.
Notable Irish Bearers of the McCann Name
- Amhlaeibh Mac Cana (d. 1155), lord of Cinel-Aenghusa, praised by the Four Masters as a pillar of the chivalry of the Cenél nEógain and buried at Armagh.
- Donal McCann (1943–1999), Dublin-born actor of the Abbey Players, Gabriel Conroy in John Huston’s film The Dead (1987) and Thomas Dunne in Sebastian Barry’s The Steward of Christendom (1995); his father, John J. McCann, was a playwright and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin.
- Jim McCann (1944–2015), Dublin singer and guitarist with the Ludlows and, from 1974, the Dubliners, whose 1986 single “Grace” spent 36 weeks in the Irish charts.
Frequently Asked Questions About the McCann Name
What is McCann in Irish?
Mac Cana, also written Mac Canna. Woulfe considers Mac Anna the more correct form.
What does McCann mean?
Woulfe explains it as “son of Annadh.” The popular alternative reads it as “son of Cana,” from a word for a cub or whelp.
Which county are the McCanns from?
County Armagh. Their lordship of Clann Breasail lay on the south side of Lough Neagh, around present-day Lurgan.
Were the McCanns connected to the O’Neills?
Yes. They were a Cenél nEógain family and held Clanbrassil as vassals of the O’Neills until the Plantation of Ulster.
Is McCann the same as MacCann?
Yes. Both spell the Irish Mac Cana; Maccann and M’Canna are further forms of the same name.
What is the Irish name of Lurgan?
Lorgain Bhaile Mhic Cana, “the long low ridge of McCann’s settlement,” anglicized as Lurganvallivackan.
Take the lough-shore lordship home with the McCann crest on the Irish National Tartan, from woven cotton blankets to the House of Maccann flag, in our McCann and MacCann heritage gift range.