Origin of the Name Mullan
The origin of the name
Mullan 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 Mullan
include O'Mellan, Mullen, Moylan, Mullins and Mulling. This name originated from several very distinct sources. It can be an abbreviation of McMullen, a Scottish surname borne by many of the seventeenth century settlers in Ulster . It can also be one of the anglicized forms of the Irish O'Maolain, which is possibly derived form the Gaelic word 'maol' meaning 'bald'. Other forms besides Mullin are Mullen and Mullan in Connacht, and Mullane and Mullins in Cork , Limerick and Clare. Mulling and Mullings are also found in Cornwall in England . As a historic sept O'Mullan belongs to Galway . The eponymous ancestor, Mullan, was descended from a King of Connacht. Another sept of O'Mullan or O'Muen existed in Ulster , in Tyrone and Derry, and are not to be confounded with the planter McMullane as one of the principal septs under the O'Cahanes.
The Mullan 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 Mullan descendants.