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Surname Etymology and Meaning of CULLEN

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

(origin: Local) From the town of Cullen, in Banffshire, Scotland. The derivation is uncertain. It may be from Cuillean, holly, a place of holly-trees; or Cullin, the place at the neck of the lake, from Cul, a neck, the back of any thing, and lin, a lake, a pond.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

1. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Coileáin ‘descendant of Coileán’, a byname meaning ‘puppy’ or ‘young dog’.
2. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Cuilinn ‘descendant of Cuileann’, a byname meaning ‘holly’.
3. Scottish: habitational name from Cullen in Banff, so named from Gaelic cùilen, a diminutive of còil, cùil ‘nook’, ‘recess’.
4. English: habitational name from the Rhineland city of Cologne (Old French form of Middle High German Köln, named with Latin colonia ‘colony’).
5. English: variant of Cooling.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)