McCarthy

McCarthy is a surname of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic Mac Cárthaigh, meaning “son of Cárthach.” It is common in Ireland and among descendants of Irish diaspora, with variant spellings such as McCarty and MacCarthy.

Notable individuals bearing the name include John McCarthy (1927–2011), an American computer scientist who helped found the field of artificial intelligence and developed the Lisp programming language; Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957), a U.S. senator whose early 1950s anti-Communist investigations gave rise to the term McCarthyism; Eugene McCarthy (1916–2005), a U.S. senator and 1968 presidential challenger who opposed the Vietnam War; and Kevin McCarthy (born 1965), an American politician who has held leadership roles in the U.S. House of Representatives, including serving as a speaker in 2023.

Geographically, McCarthy, Alaska, is a small town in the Copper River Valley near Kennicott, known for its historic mining camps and as a gateway to the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park Reserve. It grew during the early 20th-century copper boom and remains a focal point for tourism and outdoor recreation.

McCarthyism refers to the anti-Communist campaign associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Senate investigations of the early 1950s. The movement featured aggressive inquiries, accusations of disloyalty, and widespread blacklisting, leading to civil liberties concerns. It waned after McCarthy’s censure by the Senate in 1954 and is frequently cited as a cautionary example of political coercion and infringement on individual rights.

See also variations of the name, including MacCarthy and McCarty, which reflect different transliterations of the same Gaelic origin.