O’Mullan and all its variants derive from the Gaelic surname O’Maoláin, which dates to before the 10th century. ‘Maol” means bald or tonsured. So Maoláin refers to a monk or a disciple, or really anyone who shaves their head as a sign of religious devotion. So O’Maolain, in effect, is a surname meaning ‘son of the monk’ or ‘son of the disciple’.
Four distinct lines of “O’Maolain” exist in Ireland. The 1st is descended from an early king of Connacht. A 2nd comes from Munster County where the name is Mullane or Mullins. A 3rd line of O’Mullan or O’Mullen held territory in the Ulster counties of Tyrone and Derry. In Ulster, Mullan can also sometimes be an abbreviated form of “MacMullan”, a Scottish surname carried to Ulster in the 17th century colonization of Down and Antrim counties by lowland Scottish migrants.
What’s in an ‘O’?
You’ll also see that my ancestors sometimes use and sometimes don’t use the ‘O’ in front of O’Mullan. That can be confusing so here’s a bit of background. In Gaelic, the form of a surname varies according to whether its bearer is a man or a woman, and in the case of a married woman, whether or not she chose to adopt her husband’s surname.
- ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ indicates ‘a son of”
- ‘O’ indicates ‘a descendant of’
- ‘Ní’ indicates ‘a daughter of’
- ‘Uí’ indicates ‘a wife of’ – but a married woman might choose to retain her ‘Ní’ name after marriage.
Just for good measure, grammar applies when you add these prefixes to a name. So that, while a son would pronounce his name ‘McMullan’ just about as you’d expect, a daughter would spell her name ‘Ní Mhullan’ and would pronounce it more like ‘Nee Vullan”. The use of the Irish language and traditional Gaelic surnames declined everywhere but Connacht after the 16th century – so that all the grammar, gender and meaning of these prefixes just blended away into a general expression of Irish patriotism.
You’ll see on the family tombstone in Armoy that some generations are O’Mullan, and some are Mullan. Daniel W. used ‘Mullan’ all his life, but ended up with an O’Mullan on his tombstone. His father Daniel, used O’Mullan at his wedding, but was buried as ‘Mullan’.
They used it or dropped it, depending very much on political climate and social context. It didn’t come into consistent use until my family crossed to America for the last time.
Cenél, Clan, Sept
Because the family name is descriptive – ‘son of the monk’ – we have to look at the origin of each family in each region. The Connacht family of Maolain claims descent from Maoláin, who was descended from a king of Connacht. A different Maoláin family is based in Cork and frequently anglicizes the name as Mullins. In Ulster, there are two potential origins.
Cenél nEóġain is the name of the “kindred” or descendants of Eógan mac Néill, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who founded Tír Eoghain (Tyrone) in the 5th century. There are at least 12 clans within that Cenél. One of them was Clann Conchúir, or Clan Connor, which originated in Donegal before moving into Derry and Tyrone. Sept Ó Maoláin, or O’Mullan, is a sept of Clan Connor. But adding to the confusion, there were also a lot of lowland Scottish MacMullans who came to Antrim and Derry during plantation in the 17th century. The Y-DNA (passed from father to son) on the O’Mullan side of my family is Haplogroup R-M222, which makes it Clann Conchúir, Cenél nEóġain, and not Scottish in the male line. There is an interesting paper on the migration of this Haplogroup – read it here. There is also a nEóġain Y DNA project underway at FamilyTreeDNA.
Family Crest
The crest of the Connacht Ó Maoláin family – not the Ulster family – uses 3 red crescents and a fist with a sword. The Cork and Kerry Ó Maoláin family – not the Ulster family – uses a black field and red diamonds. The Scottish coat of arms is a yellow field with a black lion.
In Ulster, there seem to be 2 main crests for the Sept Ó Maoláin. One has a blue field and yellow moline cross. A second crest exists for a branch of the family that were keepers of St. Patrick’s bell – a fairly simple white field with a diagonal green stripe. I don’t know which applies.
