Molloy Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Molloy Family History

Molloy Family History

The ancient origin of the name Molloy was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Many different spelling variations of the same name can be traced back to a single original root. Also, when a bearer of a name emigrated from Ireland it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books upon arrival at their new location. Some names have dozens of spelling variations. Some Surnames were also altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically, by their sound, and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another. This was especially so in Ireland where most Gaelic names were 'anglicized' at some stage.

Variants of the name Molloy include Malloy, Miley, Millea and Slowey. This Gaelic sept were of the Southern Ui Neill, and are descended from the famous Niall of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland, A. D. 371. The head of the sept was O'Molloy, Chief Lord of Fercal, a district covering several baronies of County Offaly. The Molloys of Connacht are called in Irish O'Maoil, a name which has many anglicized forms such as Millea, Miley, Mullee, and Malloy. An important branch of this sept whose head was known as the Green Molloy, migrated to County Roscommon. In modern times they are to be found in east Connacht and Offaly. In the Cavan-Monaghan area of Ulster a variant of the name is Slowey.The Molloy family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Molloy descendants.