McLaughlin & McLoughlin Irish Family Gifts & Heritage

McLaughlin and McLoughlin both come from the Irish Mac Lochlainn, “son of Lochlainn,” a personal name of Norse origin. McLaughlin is the familiar form across Ulster, especially Donegal, Derry and Antrim, while McLoughlin is more usual in Connacht and Leinster.

The heartland is the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. There the Mac Lochlainn kings of Cenél nEógain, senior line of the northern Uí Néill, ruled from Ailech and were the most powerful family in Ulster before the thirteenth century. Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn (d. 1166) rose to claim the high-kingship of Ireland, and Domnall MacLoughlin, the last Mac Lochlainn king, fell to Brian Ó Néill in 1241. Branches later settled in Mayo and Leitrim, and in Meath the O’Melaghlin descendants of the high king Máel Sechnaill came to be written MacLoughlin as well.

The range offers both spellings. McLaughlin gifts include a woven blanket, an accent mug, a framed Christmas ornament and a Celtic harp T-shirt. McLoughlin gifts include a woven blanket, a tartan coffee mug and a ceramic ornament on the Irish National Tartan, plus a garden flag, a wall pennant, a cork coaster set, a T-shirt and a novelty license plate. Trace the dynasty in our McLaughlin and McLoughlin surname history.