MCALLEN

McAllen is a surname of discussion in its Scottish, Irish and English contexts, deriving from the Gaelic patronymic construction Mac Ailín, meaning “son of Ailín” or “son of Alan”. The element Mac or its Irish equivalent Mc signifies an ancestor‑based lineage, a trait typical of many surnames inherited from the Gaelic naming system of the British Isles.

The personal name Ailín is a diminutive of the Gaelic Ailean, a form that corresponds to the English name Alan. In the linguistic tradition of Scotland, the spelling McAllen has been attested since the early thirteenth century, with the earliest recorded instance in the Feet of Fines of Cambridgeshire dated 1234 and attributed to an individual named Geoffrey Alein during the reign of King Henry II. Such early documents confirm the existence of the surname well before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

In Scotland the name is closely linked to Clan MacFarlane, and it has been recorded in parish registers as early as the seventeenth century, for example the 1702 christening of John McKellen in Kenmore, Perth, and the 1706 baptism of Alexander, son of Gilbert McKellen and Katrin Anderson, also at Kenmore, Perth. English and Scottish variants of the name—including MacAllan, McAline, McEllen, McElane and McKellan—illustrate the phonetic transliteration of Gaelic into English orthography over the centuries.

In Ireland, McAllen is an anglicisation of Gaelic surnames such as Mac Alúin and Ó hAilín, with the prefix Mac denoting “son of” in the same sense as the Scottish usage. The two linguistic traditions are united in their shared etymology, even though the prefixes Mac and Mc are sometimes associated with the Scottish and Irish cultural domains respectively.

The original meaning of Alan is subject to a range of scholarly interpretations, with one view linking the name to an ancient Celtic word for “rock” or “noble”. Accordingly, the surname McAllen can be regarded as reflecting either a literal “son of the little rock” or a reference to a notable ancestor bearing the personal name. The selection of surnames from occupations, locales or salient personal traits was common practice in the medieval Isles, yet specific evidence about the circumstances of the surname’s early application remains sparse.

Following waves of emigration, the surname is now found predominantly in the United States, especially in states such as Texas, California and New York, where the name appears in census and immigration records. The Texan city named McAllen is believed to have been named after an early setteller John McAllen, rather than to reflect a demographic concentration of bearers of the surname. Outside of America the name continues to be relatively uncommon in its countries of origin but is still represented in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Typical given names associated with the McAllen surname

Male

• Andrew
• Andy
• Daniel
• David
• James
• John
• Matthew
• Michael
• Paul
• Peter
• Richard
• Robert
• Simon
• William

Female

• Christina
• Christine
• Elizabeth
• Helen
• Jane
• Jennifer
• Leeanne
• Linda
• Margaret
• Nikoletta
• Samantha
• Sandra
• Stephanie

Similar and related surnames

Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.

How to communicate the surname McAllen in...

Braille

⠍⠉⠁⠇⠇⠑⠝

Morse

---.-..-.-...-...-.

Semaphore

Surname type: From name of parent

Origin: Celtic

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Religion of origin: Christian

Language of origin: Gaelic

Your comments on the McAllen surname