Mooney
An Irish surname most often treated as a Anglicized form of an old Gaelic family name, though some 19th-century writers also linked it to a nickname meaning “hero.”
The #1,033 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,201 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most evidence points to Mooney as an Anglicized Irish surname, with related spellings such as Money, Moyney, and Moany appearing in older Irish records. The Gaelic forms cited by later Irish surname scholars suggest it comes from a family name built on an old Irish personal name, though the exact original form is not always consistent in the older literature. One 19th-century source also gave a different explanation, connecting it with an Irish word meaning “hero,” so the name’s early derivation is not entirely settled in these excerpts.
History
The surname is well represented in Irish genealogical sources and was recorded in several variant forms in historical Irish indexes. English-language surname writers in the 19th century sometimes offered competing explanations, including a nickname-based Irish derivation and, less confidently, links to other surnames. In modern usage it is strongly associated with Ireland and the Irish diaspora.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same older reference tradition that lists Mooney also groups nearby spellings like Moany, Money, and Moyney, showing how fluid Irish surname spellings could be in parish and civil records.
From the historical record
“Dept. MOONEY (Celt.) Hero [Ir. Maonach-maon, a hero + the pers. suff. -acn\ MOOR \ (Eng.) Dweller at a Moor [M.E. MOORE ] mor{e, moore, O.E. »irfr, a moor] John atte Mor. — Hund. Rolls. Jordan de la Mor. — do. Adam del More. — Pari. Writs.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)