McGovern

Variations – Magovern, Magauran, McGowran, Saurin, Somers, Summers
Racial Origin – Irish
Source – A given name    

“M’Samhradhain” doesn’t look as though it sounded anything like Mcgovern, nevertheless it is the true Gaelic form not only of this family name, but of Magovern, Magaurin, MacGovern, McGowran, Saurin and in some instances of Somers and Summers.

The last two names are also traceable to English sources and Norman-French origins.  If either one is yours it depends on whether your ancestry is Irish or not as to which source your family name came from.

As a matter of fact, the pronunciation of “MacSamhradhain” is not so far from MacGovern, the Irish consonants are often not what they seem, especially when combined.  An “m” sometimes has the sound of “b” and sometimes of “v.”  Often, too, consonants are silent in certain combinations.  In this case drop the sound of the “s” after the “Mac,” assume that “mh” has the “v” sound and that the “dh” is silent.  You get a pronunciation something like “Mac-avra-an,” or “Mac-ovra-an.”  The “G” of course, doesn’t really belong there, except that it just happened in the Anglicizing of the name.  It comes really as a result of the “k” sound of the “c” in “Mac.”  If the name were scientifically Anglicized, with as much respect as possible for both spelling and pronunciation, it would be “MacOvran,”  but names don’t change in the hasty speech of the “man on the street” and his equivalent in the Middle Ages.

“Sambradhain,” who founded the clan about 500 A.D., was one of the more ancient Clan O’Connor.  The given name means “summer,” hence the English variations of Somers and Summers through the process of translation.