Kane
A surname with several linked Irish and Manx forms, most often tied to O'Kane / O'Cahan.
The #680 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,104 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually treated as an anglicized form of the Irish O'Cahan, or related Manx forms such as Mac Cain / Mac Kane. In that tradition, it ultimately points to a Gaelic personal name like Cahan, Cain, or Kane rather than the English word "kane." Some older writers also connected Kane with the Manx surname Cain, and a few records show spellings such as MacKane and MacCann.
History
Bardsley notes Kane as a Manx surname meaning "the son of Kane or Cain," and also links it with Irish O'Kane. Lower gives Kane directly as "see O'Cahan," showing the older habit of folding several Gaelic spellings together under one English form. In the U.S. and elsewhere, Kane has also been reinforced by immigration from Ireland and the Isle of Man, where the surname appears in several related spellings.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source notes that Kane and Kain could also be used in English records for the Normandy town of Caen, so not every historical Kane is necessarily Irish or Manx.
From the historical record
“KALLOWAY. The same as Callaway. KANE. See O'Cahan. KARBY. A corruption of Kirby. KARR. The same as Carr. KAVAFAGH. The fomily claim des- cent from ancestors who Avere of old mon- archs of all Ireland, and who at the inva- sion of Heniy II. were kings of Leinster. They bore the suraame of Mac-Murroiigh ; but in 1171…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom