McGivern Is an anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Uidhrín, a patronymic from a personal name which is from a diminutive of odhar ‘dun’. This surname is also found in Galloway in Scotland, where it is of Irish origin. They belonged to Cenél Fearadhaigh, or 'race of Ferry', descend from Feradach mac Muiredach, a great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, and by the 12th century controlled a large portion of County Tyrone and had penetrated deep into County Fermanagh but were reduced in the mid-14th century, by the Maguires.