SNIPPET: County Cavan, Ireland, owes its name "Cabhann" (hollow) to its glacial landscape of rolling drumlins of the last Ice Age and corresponding valleys; also found are beautiful lakes with numerous islands, and lofty woods. In Co. Cavan the surname Smith is almost always a synonym of MacGowan rather than of English origin. It means "son of the smith" (blacksmith). "Mac and Ghabhain" and its translation to Smith was very widespread, particularly in Co. Cavan where the MacGowan sept originated. It is included by the chroniclers as one of the principal septs of Breifne. On the borders of Breifne in Co. Leitrim and to the northwest in Cos. Sligo and Donegal, the true form MacGowan is still used in preference to Smith. There was also in east Ulster a distinct sept of O'Gowan which was also anglicized to Smith. Variants of the name include Gow, Gowan and Magone. The pre-famine population of Co. Cavan was 250,000. Its present-day population is approximately 53,000, a decrease of almost 80 percent. This decrease was due to death as a result of fever and starvation, and mass emigration. Principal Gaelic surnames of Co. Cavan include the following: O'Reilly/Reilly (the most common name and associated with Clough Oughter Castle, also found in Co. Longford), Brady (MacBrady), Smith, Sheridan (formerly O'Sheridan and orig. from Co. Longford), MacGovern (found in NW Cavan, Cos. Leitrim and Fermanagh), Donohoe, MacKiernan, Lynch, Maguire, Farrelly/O'Farrelly, Dolan, Clarke, Fitzpatrick, Gaffney, Galligan, MacManus, MacHugh, MacLoughlin and O'Connell. Historically, the MacGoverns were known as Magauran. Apart from Co. Wicklow, Nixon is common only in Ulster, particularly Co. Cavan and Fermanagh. The MacCabes, who came from the Western Isles of Scotland about the year 1350 as gallowglasses to the O'Reillys and O'Rourkes, themselves became a recognized Breifne sept. The main English and Scottish names in Co. Cavan include Wilson, Johnston, Nixon, Bell, Armstrong, Elliott, Acheson, Brown, Campbell, Jackson and Jameson. Some of the more unusual names include Drawnear, Turbett and Jermyn. Some crude anglicizations that have been noted include Halfhead (MacElekin), and Ox (Davin).