Mulligan - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Maolagáin
Meaning: “little tonsured one”
Traditional stronghold: Mayo, Donegal
Pronunciation: MULL-ih-gan; Irish Ó Maolagáin: oh MWAYL-a-gawn
History of the Mulligan name
Mulligan is Ó Maolagáin, a diminutive of maol, the tonsured one, suggesting an ancestor in religious service. The sept were chiefs of a territory in the barony of Raphoe, County Donegal, until the upheavals of the seventeenth century scattered them into Mayo and Monaghan. Some families anglicised the name as Molyneux, and a few even translated the 'bald' element as Baldwin. Literature gave the name two immortals: stately, plump Buck Mulligan of Joyce's Ulysses, and in history the Coleraine-born tailor Hercules Mulligan, whose New York spying for Washington was celebrated anew in the musical Hamilton.
Variants: Milligan (sometimes) · Molyneux (assumed) · Baldwin (assumed) · O'Mulligan
Famous bearers of the name
- Hercules Mulligan - Coleraine-born tailor and spy for George Washington in revolutionary New York.
- Gerry Mulligan - Irish-American baritone saxophonist, a giant of cool jazz.
- Robert Mulligan - Irish-American director of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Walsh · Gallagher · Burke · Boyle · Doherty · Sweeney · O'Donnell · Duffy