Cullen - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Cuilinn
Meaning: “holly”
Traditional stronghold: Wexford, Wicklow
Pronunciation: KUL-en; Irish Ó Cuilinn: oh KWIL-in
History of the Cullen name
Ó Cuilinn, generally linked to cuileann, the holly tree, was a sept of south-east Leinster seated at Glencullen on the Dublin-Wicklow border, and the name has always been most numerous in Wicklow, Wexford, Kildare and Dublin. A distinct family, Ó Cuilleáin, arose in west Cork and was also anglicised Cullen or Collins, so the two names overlap in Munster. The Leinster Cullens were pushed off their lands early by the Anglo-Normans but persisted as tenants and townsmen throughout the region. The name's most influential bearer, Cardinal Paul Cullen of Kildare farming stock, reshaped the Irish Catholic Church in the 19th century and became Ireland's first cardinal in 1866.
Variants: O'Cullen · Cullinan · Quillan
Famous bearers of the name
- Paul Cullen - Archbishop of Dublin and Ireland's first cardinal, the dominant Irish churchman of the 19th century.
- James Cullen - Jesuit priest who founded the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association in 1898.
- Bill Cullen - Dublin businessman and author of the memoir It's a Long Way from Penny Apples.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · Byrne · Doyle · Kavanagh · Roche · Keating · Redmond · Larkin