Brogan is a distinctly Irish surname. The nineteenth-century Irish surname historian Patrick Woulfe describes Ó Brógáin as an old surname of Mayo and Donegal, and says that the O'Brogans of Mayo historically possessed estates at Breachmaigh and Cnoc Spealain in the barony of Carra.

The surname distribution recorded in Robert Matheson's 1909 study is also revealing. Of the Brogan births recorded in Ireland in 1890 Matheson specifically identifies Mayo and Donegal as the counties where Brogan was principally found. My research has revealed that my Brogan family originated from Burrishoole, Clew bay in  Co. Mayo. Patrick Brogan (b. 1829) left Burrishoole in the late 1840s presumably fleeing the potato famine.