Origin of the Name Dolan
The origin of the name
Dolan was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Dolan is derived from the Gaelic O'Dobhailen sept name. When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. This ancient sept was located in Clonmacnowen barony in County Galway and in the barony of Athlone in County Roscommon.
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.
This sept is distinct from the O'Doibhilin sept which gives the name Devlin. In modern times the name Dolan is mainly found in Connaught Province in Counties Galway as well as in Counties Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh. Doolan is an occasional variant of this old Irish name.
The Dolan 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 Dolan descendants.