1,246 MALLEN members around the world

MALLEN Family History

Recorded in several spellings including Malin, Mallin, Malan, Mallan, Malen, Mallen, and the patronymics Mallinson, Mallison, and Malleson, this surname is one of a group that were derived from the name of the first bearer's mother. It is from the medieval female given name "Malin", a diminutive of "Malle, itself a pet form of the very popular Mary. The base name is believed to come from the Aramaic "Maryam", meaning "wished for a child". St. Jerome understood it as a compound of "mar", drop, and "ham", sea, which he rendered as "stilla maris" (Latin), later altered to "stella maris", star of the sea.