An Irish surname meaning 'son of the pale one' or 'son of the fair-haired one'. A patronymic name common in Irish genealogy.
From Irish Mac Uidhir, meaning 'son of Odhar' (pale or dun-colored one). The anglicized spelling developed during British colonial administration of Ireland when Gaelic names were transformed to fit English phonetics and spelling conventions.
McGuire demonstrates how colonialism literally changed how people wrote their own names - the original Mac Uidhir carries deep meaning about appearance and ancestry that gets lost in the anglicized version! Irish surnames are like coded family histories written in an ancient language.
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