This name, with variant spellings Bohane, Buhan, Bohen and Bughan, is an anglicized form of the Olde Gaelic O Buadhachain. The Gaelic prefix "O" indicates "male descendant of ", plus the personal byname Buadhachain from"buadhach" meaning victorious. This sept originally belonged to the province of Connacht, chiefly to Counties Leitrim and Galway where the name is still widespread. In Petty's census of 1659 O'Boughan appears as one of the principal names in West Carbery, County Cork. This spelling was also well recorded in the adjoining County Tipperary and further north in Offaly. In County Clare and South Connacht the name takes the form Bohanon while Bohane, which is rare is now confined to families of County Cork origin. Some researchers suggest that the county Cork Bohanes derive their name from the Gaelic "na mbothan" i.e. "of the huts or sheds" - a nickname attached to a branch of the O' Sullivans. James Bohan, aged 24, who embarked from Liverpool on May 11th 1846, was a famine emigrant into New York. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of O'Bohen of County Leitrim, which was dated 1559, in the "Fiant Litterae Patentes", during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603.

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