McMahon or MacMahon ( or ; , traditionally ; meaning "son of the bear") is an Irish surname.
The surname came into use around the 11th century by two different Irish clans: The MacMahons of Thomond, a sept of the Dál gCais, and the MacMahons of Oriel, rulers of Airgíalla. Additionally, a separate McMahon family in County Fermanagh is descended from Mahon Maguire, a grandson of Donn Carrach Maguire. According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the MacMahons were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCais or Dalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.
McMahon or MacMahon is the surname of the following people:
Arts
Humanities Darrin M. McMahon (born 1965), historian, author, public speaker, and the Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History at Dartmouth College Jennifer A. McMahon (1956–2023), Australian philosopher and professor emerita at the University of Adelaide Robert J. McMahon, American historian of the foreign relations of the United States and a scholar of the Cold War who holds the chair of Ralph D. Mershon Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University
Politics and nobility
Religion Bernard MacMahon (bishop) (1680–1747), Irish bishop Bernard MacMahon (Irish bishop), Irish Bishop Don S. McMahon, retired Australian Seventh-day Adventist medical doctor, noted for making "pseudoscientific claims, historical errors, and misleading comparisons" Dorothy McRae-McMahon, (born 1934), retired Australian Uniting Church minister and activist Heber MacMahon (1600–1650), Irish bishop and general Hugh MacMahon (1660–1737), Irish bishop James McMahon (priest) (1817–1901), Irish-born priest Rev. John Henry MacMahon (1829–1900), Church of Ireland cleric, known as a scholar of patristics and the scholastic philosophers, and father of prolific Irish romance novelist Ella MacMahon John J. McMahon (bishop) (1875–1932), American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church Lawrence Stephen McMahon (1835–1893), Canadian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church Michael Peter MacMahon (1720–1807), Irish Dominican friar Séamus mac Pilib Mac Mathghamhna (died 1519), Bishop of Derry Thomas McMahon (bishop) (1936–2025), English Roman Catholic bishop William Ponsonby McMahon (1852–1933) Australian Catholic newspaperman
Science and medicine
Sports
Wrestling John McMahon (wrestler) (1841–1911), American professional wrestler; no relation to the McMahon family The McMahon family of WWE fame: Jess McMahon (1882–1954), boxing and wrestling promoter; founder of Capitol Wrestling Corporation Vincent J. McMahon (1914–1984), wrestling promoter; founder of WWE's immediate predecessor company, the World Wide Wrestling Federation Vince McMahon (born 1945), former chairman and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (dba WWE, Inc.) Linda McMahon (born 1948), wife of Vince Jr., former CEO of WWE and former administrator of the Small Business Administration. Shane McMahon (born 1970), son of Vince Jr. and former Executive President of WWE Global Media Stephanie McMahon (born 1976), daughter of Vince Jr., chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE
Other occupations
Fictional characters
Matthew McMahon, a member of Garden, a senior assassin, of Spy x Family.
See also McMahon clans, ancestral Irish clans McMahon (disambiguation), disambiguation page for McMahon McMahan, surname list McMahen, surname list McMann, surname list Pre-Norman invasion Irish Celtic kinship groups, from whom many of the modern Irish surnames come
References