Irish (Cavan): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó
Gobhann ‘descendant of the smith’.
Scottish and Irish:
shortened form of McGowan or from the genitive
(gobhainn) of gobhan ‘smith’. In Ireland
(in the south, especially), these names were also translated as
Smith.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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