Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : Anglicized form of the common and widespread Gaelic name Ó Maoláin ‘descendant of Maolán’, a byname meaning ‘tonsured one’, ‘devotee’ (from a diminutive of maol ‘bald’).
- English : topographic name for someone who lived by a mill, or a metonymic occupational name for a miller, from Anglo-Norman French mo(u)lin, mulin ‘mill’ (see Mill). In some instances it may be a variant of Millen, from Middle English mullelane.
- Dutch and Belgian (van Mullen) : habitational name from Mullem in East Flanders, Mullem in West Flanders, or possibly Mollen in Brabant.
- Dutch (van (der) Mullen) : variant of van der Molen (see Molen 4).