Introduction

The origin of the spelling of the CRAGUN family name is something of a mystery. Members of the family have used different spellings over the years with one vowel substituting for another. For example, brothers have used different spellings, one choosing Cragun, another choosing Cragon and yet a third electing Cragan. The phonetic kryaghen is a transliteration from a Celtic (Gaelic) word meaning: a little rocky height, or a rocky wilderness. It is likely to have originally been a place name rather than a family name, but a place name from which family names were derived. Some of its anglicized usages include:

• 1. Creggan. A town land in what once had been the Barony of Upper Fews, County Armagh, Ulster, Northern Ireland. It is here that proprietors settled Scottish and English protestants on their estates to work the land. Through this area flows a small stream called Creegan River. Creegan is also the name of a road in Derry, Londonderry County, Ulster.
• 2. Creagan. The name of a town land north of Oban, in Lorn, Argyll, Scotland. Here the name is descriptive of the land: high and rocky.
• 3. Croghan. The name of a mountain (6,000 ft. high) west of the city of Arklow in County Wicklow, Eire. The name is likely derived from the Gaelic word which is anglicized as croaghaun meaning: a little pile of stones.
• 4. Cregan. A surname found throughout Ireland. One notable of that name is Martin Cregan of County Meath, 1788-1870. He was portrait painter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Francis Johnson, and was at one time president of the Royal Hibernian Academy.
• 5. Craigen. In 1272 the Church of Cragyn (now Cragie) in Kyle, Scotland was confirmed to the monks of Paisley by Thomas de Cragyn, who assumed his name from his land.