McAllen (surname) McAllen (surname) McAllen is an Scots Gaelic surname, originating from "MacAllen" in Scotland. Historically, the name has migrated to Ireland, where the prefix of the name has been commonly transposed with "Mc". The first recorded arrivals to Ireland bearing this name came in the 15th century to County Donegal, with the arrival of Gallowglas military families to support the Irish nobility of the north. McAllen is derivative of "Ó h-Ailín" or "Ailin", which in Scottish Gaelic means both "little rock" and "harmony", and with the Mc prefix meaning "son of". Variant spellings include McAlan, McAllan, etc. The surname McAllen has
Scottish Gaelic name MacKonochie, MacOnachie, MacOnechy, MacOnochie, Donohue" or "Donohoe" (ignoring the Mac/Mc variation). Note that Scottish Gaelic does not put a space between the and the second element, whereas in Irish, there is a space: Nicknames (, ) in Gaelic operate similarly to those in other languages and usually indicate a physical characteristic, an occupation, a location or an incident the person is associated and so forth. Some examples Due to the relative paucity of names and surnames in Gaelic, the official name of a person (i.e. first name plus a surname, in Gaelic or English) is rarely used in Gaelic speaking