What's in a name?

Since arriving in Ireland, I've been asked many times if I have Irish descent because of my last name (Mahon), and I do. Then comes the next question: where is your family from? To be honest, I don't know. I never knew much about my family's heritage other than the fact that we had Irish relatives, and that's an embarassing answer. People here seem to have a very close connection to their family name and where their roots are, and while I've always been proud of my family and who we are, I didn't know much about where we came from. So when the opportunity arose to visit a heritage center came about, I jumped at the chance to learn more about my Mahon clan.

So a few things I learned about my family name. Mahon is one of the best known and most distinguished names in Ireland, and there's many variations of the name itself. The name itself comes from the older Gaelic word for bear (mathuin) and my family originates from County Clare and Ulster. I also found that our family motto is "Fortitude Preserved Me From Danger." Aside from this brief summary of my family history, I was able to get a more detailed version along with our family coat of arms. I feel really fortunate to have had the opportunity to not just learn where my family came from, but to have traveled through the area as well.