Origin of the Name Mallon
The origin of the name
Mallon 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 Mallon
include Mellan and Mellon. This name in Irish is O'Meallain and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This Gaelic name is taken from the word 'meall', meaning 'pleasant'. This sept came from Ulster .
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.
Their territory was Meallanacht, O'Mellan's Country, which is presently in Cookstown in County Tyrone. Many of the sept spread to Armagh. The sept was a branch of the Cenel Eoghain from whom County Tyrone got its name. They were chiefly noted as joint hereditary keepers, with the Mulhollands, of the Bell of Saint Patrick, otherwise called 'The Bell of the Testament'. Some families of Mellan and Mallon in County Tyrone have allowed their name to become Mullen, which is a very common name in that County.
The Mallon 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 Mallon descendants.