Parent’s name
Hogan surname meaning
An anglicized Irish patronymic from Ó hÓgáin, “descendant of Ógán,” a name connected with óg, “young.”
The short story
Hogan is an anglicized Irish patronymic from Ó hÓgáin, “descendant of Ógán.” Ógán is connected with the Irish word óg, “young,” so the name is sometimes explained through a young person or young man. That gloss belongs to the older personal name; it is not a literal description of every later Hogan. O’Hogan and Ohogan preserve parts of the Gaelic formation, while Hogin is a spelling variant in some records. Parent’s name is the high-confidence catalog type because the descendant-of structure is explicit.
Also seen as: Ó hÓgáin, O’Hogan, Ohogan, Hogin
Sources used
- Ancestry, last-name entry 'Hogan' (Irish patronymic)
- Irish Names and Surnames, 'Ó hÓgáin' (descendant of Ógán)
- US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Last Names in the 2020 Census by Race and Hispanic Origin: Top 1,000 (Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx), released April 2026