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
Mac and Mc together in print two publications on filing rules, one covering that "word-by-word" convention, and another prepared in 1980 that is "letter-by-letter". A 1998 book attributes the changes to the rules to computer informatics, and notes the Mac/Mc change as its first example. 1982's "Scottish Roots", a guide for family history researchers, warns that older Scottish records do not in fact follow this convention, unlike contemporary telephone directories. A 2001 book of "New York Times" theatre reviews sorts Mc names as if spelled Mac. A 2002 official document for the State of Vermont recommends explicitly no special treatment for Mac and Mc.