Origin of the Name McClelland
The
McClelland family history 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 McClelland
include McLellan, McClellan, McLeland, McLalland, McLelland and Leland. Families bearing these names were numerous in Galloway in Scotland in the fourteenth century and they gave their name to Balmaclellan in the Stewarty. Their lands were granted to John Maclellan by James III in 1466, when his name was given to the lands after he had bestowed a site for a new church. John M'Lelane had a charter of lands at Balmaclelane from Vedastus Greresone, which received the Royal confirmation in 1466. The earliest record of the name is in the year 1305 when Patrick, son of Gilbert M'Lolane, with several others, took the Castle of Dumfries from the followers of Bruce. Some of the clan in the Aberfeldy district of Perthshire are regarded as a branch of the Clan MacNab.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The McClelland 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 McClelland descendants.