McAlinden Coat of Arms, Family Crest and McAlinden Family History

McAlinden Family History

The family history of the ancient name McAlinden 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 McAlinden include McAlinion, O'Mulderrig, Mulderrig, Linden and Glendon. In Irish this name is Mac Giolla Fhindein and both McAlinden and McAlinion are variants, both deriving from Saint Finian. McAlinion comes from County Fermanagh and McAlinden from the eastern part of Oriel, Counties Armagh and Down. Linden and Glendon are found in the Jacobite lists of the 17th century and are usualy written as McLyndon. McElenan and McElynan were found in the Fermanagh Inquisitions in the 1620s and 1630s. They were an important sept in the Gaelic order and claim descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages, their territoy being County Fermanagh and their chief styled 'Lord of Lough Erne'. Their ancestor was Giolla Finden O'Muldory.The McAlinden 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 McAlinden descendants.