Maccon, i. e. son of the hound, or hero. Keating accounts for the origin of this name by this little fable:
‘Is in Olilli domo ut ejus praevignus, ut cujus matrem Sabham Conni Centipraelii filiam Olillus uxorem habebat, pusillus pusio versatus et nondum vestigia figere peritus ad Olilli canem venaticum Aquilam Rubram nomine manibus repens accessit, et canis infantulum ore saepius arripuit [recte ad ubera sorbenda accepit] nec tamen ab assiduo ad eum accessu coerceri potuit, quae res illi nomen Maccon peperit, quod perinde est ac canis venatici filius.’—Lynch.
This, however, is clearly the conjectured derivation of a posterior age. The name Maccon would certainly denote ‘filius canis’, but it might be figuratively used to denote son of a hero, and this looks the more likely, as his father's name was Mac-niadh, i. e. son of a champion. The old Irish used the word ‘cu’, a dog, or hound, to denote a hero, or fierce warrior, and in this sense it frequently entered into the composition of names of men, as Cu-mara, i. e. dog of the sea; Cu-Uladh, dog of Ulster; Cu-Mumhan, dog of Munster. In the same sense the Latins used Catullus, Cato, and the Greeks Cyrus.