Origin of the Name Michael
The ancient history of the name
Michael 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 Michael
include Michaels, MacMichael and Michaelson. This is a baptismal name meaning 'the son of Michael', a name of great antiquity. This name can be of English, Scottish or Irish origin. When of Scottish origin the name is usually rendered as MacMichael, they being a branch of the Scottish clan Stewart. Michael is also sometimes an anglicized form of the Gaelic O'Maoilmhichil sept that was located in Connaught Province. This Gaelic name translates as 'devotee of Saint Michael' and was also changed to Mulvihill, Melville, Mulville and even to Mitchell in Ulster . 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.
The Michael 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 Michael descendants.