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 A 2007 book in its tenth edition states that "most library catalogs" sort Mac and Mc names as if spelled M-a-c. Among the guides which generally recommend separating Mac and Mc so that names will be sorted as they are spelled are ISO 999, The Chicago Manual of Style, "Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders", "The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage", and "The SBL Handbook of Style". Mac and Mc together A convention of sorting names with the Scottish and Irish patronymic prefixes Mac and Mc together persists in library science and archival