Origin of the Name Rowland
The origin of the name
Rowland was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Rowland
include Rowley, Roland and Rolan. This name in Irish is O'Rothlain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Sligo.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
They were seated in the parish of Easkey, on the East side of the River Easkey in County Sligo. A record of the death of the master O'Rothlain can be found in the Ancient document the 'Annals of Loch Ce' dated 1337. The name Rowland is recorded in Connacht in the person of Doctor Rowland, a Warden of Galway in the year 1597. A notable person of the name was Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1765-1842, he being a Leitrim man. In modern times the name is still found to be numerous in its original habitat of County Sligo. Rowland is also a name of English origin and as such was brought into Ulster Province in the seventeenth century.
The Rowland coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Rowland descendants.