McCarthy

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic Gaelic Irish: the surname of the ruling family of the Eóganacht of Munster, kings of Desmond.^[1][2]

The name is built on the personal name Cárthach, usually explained as “loving”. Woulfe links it to the Old Celtic Caratacos and calls it an ancient Irish personal name.^[1]

Place

Where the McCarthys lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct McCarthy lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

The name over time

History

Cárthach and the Eóganacht

The MacCarthys were the leading family of the Eóganacht, the dynasty that had ruled Munster from Cashel and traced itself to Eoghan Mór, son of Oilioll Olum, whom Woulfe places as king of Munster in the 3rd century. The surname comes from Cárthach, lord of the Eóganacht, who died in 1045 when a house he was in was deliberately set on fire. Cárthach's father was Saerbhreathach, a name the family kept using and anglicised as Justin. According to Wikipedia, the first to use Mac Cárthaigh as a fixed surname were Tadhg and Cormac, grandsons of Cárthach through his son Muireadhach, who died in 1092.^[1][2][8]

Kings of Desmond

The Treaty of Glanmire in 1118 divided Munster into Thomond in the north and Desmond in the south. Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh became the first king of Desmond, a kingdom covering present-day Cork and most of Kerry. His brother Cormac, the last king of a united Munster, died in 1138. He is remembered for Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel, begun in 1127 and consecrated in 1134. The sources differ on why the family left the Tipperary lowlands. Woulfe blames the Anglo-Norman invasion, while Wikipedia says the O'Briens pushed them out of the Golden Vale in the mid-12th century.^{[1][9][8][10][2]}

Callann and the Norman frontier

In August 1261 Fínghin Mac Carthaigh, king of Desmond, defeated an Anglo-Norman army under John FitzGerald at Callann, near present-day Kilgarvan in Co. Kerry. The MacCarthys remained the dominant power in Desmond, and Woulfe describes them as very numerous in Cork and Kerry, still holding large estates until the revolution of 1688. The kingship passed by tanistry, the Gaelic system of succession, until Desmond was dissolved in 1596.^[1][11][2]

Three great branches and Tudor titles

By the late Middle Ages the family had divided into three main lines: MacCarthy Mór in Kerry, MacCarthy Reagh in Carbery and the MacCarthys of Muskerry, with many smaller branches. Under the Tudors the heads took English titles. Donal MacCarthy Mór became Earl of Clancare in 1565, and other members were later made Barons of Valentia, Earls of Clancarty, Viscounts Muskerry and Lords Mountcashel. Florence MacCarthy, born at Kilbrittain in 1560, was the last credible claimant to the title MacCarthy Mór. After the Nine Years' War he spent his last 40 years in custody in London.^{[1][2][4][12]}

War, forfeiture and exile

Like most of the Gaelic nobility, the MacCarthys lost nearly everything in the 17th century. Donough MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry, joined the Catholic Confederation in the 1640s and was later made Earl of Clancarty. In the Williamite War, Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, took Bandon for James II in 1689 but was defeated and captured at Newtownbutler. After 1691 the 4th Earl of Clancarty was attainted and the Muskerry line lost its titles and Macroom Castle. A branch of the MacCarthy Reagh moved to Toulouse, where it was recognised as French counts.^{[2][13][14][6][5]}

The MacCarthy Mór affair

The chiefly title made headlines in the 1990s. In 1992 the Genealogical Office in Dublin gave Terence MacCarthy, a Belfast-born writer, courtesy recognition as The MacCarthy Mór. Research later showed that his pedigree was false: his documented ancestors were ordinary Belfast people, and his grandfather's surname appears as MacCartney. The recognition was withdrawn in 1999. In 2003 the Irish government stopped granting courtesy recognition to chiefs of the name altogether.^[15]

Places linked to the name

• Blarney Castle, Co. Cork — The present keep was built in 1446 by the MacCarthys of Muskerry and was their historic seat.^[7][2]
• Macroom Castle, Co. Cork — Residence of the lords of Muskerry from about 1353 until the family lost it in 1691.^[6]
• Kilbrittain, Co. Cork — Kilbrittain Castle was the chief seat of the MacCarthy Reagh, and Florence MacCarthy was born here.^[5][12]
• Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary — Site of Cormac's Chapel, the chapel of King Cormac Mac Cárthaigh, begun 1127 and consecrated 1134.^[10]
• Callann, near Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry — Where Fínghin Mac Carthaigh defeated the Anglo-Normans in 1261.^[11]

Everyday lives

The McCarthys in the census

Who the McCarthys were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

McCarthys All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the McCarthy bar

Given names

First names among the McCarthys

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, Michael, James, Denis; Mary, Margaret, Ellen, Bridget, Kate.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Related forms

• MacCarthy — The fuller Mac spelling, used by many of the historical lords and by Woulfe.^[1]
• McCarty / MacCarty / MacCartie — Spellings without the 'th', recorded by Woulfe and on Wikipedia.^[1][16]
• MacArthy / MacCarha / M'Carhig — Older or less common anglicisations that Woulfe lists for Mac Cárthaigh.^[1]
• MacCarty (Clancarty title) — Some members of the Muskerry line spelled the name MacCarty, for example Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty.^[13]
• Carthy / Carty / O'Carthy — Usually the separate surname Ó Cárthaigh, 'descendant of Cárthach', with families in Tipperary, Clare and Roscommon. Woulfe warns against confusing it with Mac Cárthaigh.^[3]

Diaspora

The McCarthys abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a McCarthy coat of arms?

People

Notable people named McCarthy

• Cormac Mac Cárthaigh (died 1138)
  King of Munster, after whom Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel is named.
• Florence MacCarthy (1560–1640)
  Last credible claimant to MacCarthy Mór; held in London for 40 years after the Nine Years' War.
• Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel (c. 1643–1694)
  Jacobite general and friend of James II in the Williamite War.
• Sir Charles MacCarthy (1764–1824)
  Soldier in French, Dutch and British service; British governor in West Africa.
• Denis Florence MacCarthy (1817–1882)
  Irish poet and biographer, best known for translating Spanish literature into English.
• Justin McCarthy (1830–1912)
  Cork-born novelist, historian and nationalist MP who chaired the anti-Parnellite party after 1890.
• Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957)
  US senator from Wisconsin whose anti-communist campaign gave 'McCarthyism' its name.
• Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023)
  American novelist widely regarded as one of the greatest of his country's writers.
• Mick McCarthy (born 1959)
  Republic of Ireland international defender and later manager of the national team.
• Teddy McCarthy (1965–2023)
  Cork dual player, the only man to win All-Ireland senior hurling and football medals in one year.
• Melissa McCarthy (born 1970)
  American actress and comedian, twice an Emmy winner and twice an Oscar nominee.
• Terence MacCarthy (born 1957)
  Belfast-born writer whose recognition as The MacCarthy Mór was withdrawn in 1999.

Questions

Questions about the McCarthy name

Evidence

Sources

1. Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames — Mac Cárthaigh (1923)
2. Wikipedia, MacCarthy dynasty
3. Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames — Ó Cárthaigh (1923)
4. Dictionary of Irish Biography, MacCarthy Mór, Donal
5. Wikipedia, MacCarthy Reagh
6. Wikipedia, Macroom Castle
7. Wikipedia, Blarney Castle
8. Wikipedia, Cormac Mac Cárthaigh
9. Wikipedia, Kingdom of Desmond
10. Wikipedia, Rock of Cashel
11. Wikipedia, Battle of Callann
12. Wikipedia, Florence MacCarthy
13. Wikipedia, Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty
14. Wikipedia, Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel
15. Wikipedia, Terence Francis MacCarthy
16. Wikipedia, McCarthy (surname)
17. Wiktionary, McCarthy
18. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.
19. Irish forms cross-checked against Gaois surname data (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU).

How we compile these figures: methodology.