Dumigan

Recorded in several spellings including Domegan, Dumigan, Domican, Domigan, and no doubt others, this is an Irish surname. The late Edward MacLysaght, the leading authority on Irish surnames, notes it is his dictionaries, but provides no evidence as to its origins simply descrbing it as (quote) 'a rare Leinster surname of which the form as Dumigan, is from County Down' in Ulster.However even in this he does not seem to be correct, as County Down would seem to be the epicentre of the name, irrespective of the spellings. The original Gaelic was as O' Domagain which literally translates as 'The male descendant of the poor one', however one must be cautious in applying literal translations to names which were formed as much as a millenium ago. In that time the Gaelic language has changed as much as English, and it is unlikely that a surname which was not complimentary would survive the test of time. On the other hand the famous name of Kennedy means literally 'ugly head', and this does not seem to have been any sort of bar to its progress. Examples of this surname recording include George Dumigan at Magheral, County Down, on June 25th 1815, and William Domigan at Dromore, also County Down, on July 20th 1832.