Our Name

Spelling Variants:

The approved Irish spelling of Boylan is Ó Baoighealláin - prounced oh Bay-ill-awe-in (say it quickly and it's not so bad!!). The correct irish spelling of Boylan in Skerries is O'Baoilean. This is pronounced “o'B-whale-On”. Baylon is a spelling that sounds very close to the original Irish pronunciation in Dromin.There are still members of the Boylan clan in Ireland that spell their name Baylon.

The letter “y” is not known in the Irish language. In relation to the anglisization of Irish family names, our consultant advises that most Irish family names were anglisized during the Tudor and Elizabethan years of the 16th century. It may have been a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" as having a name which was easily pronounced by the British colonising powers would have made life and trade much easier for the local Irish people. Over time the spelling was shortend to O'Baoilean or O’Beollain and the English “y” was introduced like O’Boleyn. The modern variants are Boylan, Boylen and Boyland.

Peadar Boylan of Skerries thinks the reverse - that Boylan could be derived from Boleyn as in "Anne Boleyn" the daughter of the general overseer of Ireland for Cromwell.

The original meaning of the name Ó Baoighealláin:

The Hedgelock Boylans lore had it that “Ó Baoighealláin” means “son of potato field owner” in Irish. Margaret Boylen (spellt with an “e”) emailed to say that her family has indeed farmed potatos in Nova Scotia for 6 generations!

The Website Irish Surnames claims that the native Gaelic “Ó Baoighealláin” translates to English as 'pledge'. The Irish for pledge is “geall” as in“Ó Baoighealláin” (but it is also the Irish for “hostage”).

How to become a Boylan:

1. You can be born with one of the spellings

2. You can marry a “real” Boylan and thus join our clan

3. You can even simply be creative and adopt the name (voluntarily or not...) or be adopted by a Boylan.

Here are some actual and interesting examples of persons becoming Boylans:

Christopher Thomas Boyland wrote that according to family legend his great grandfather lost his job for some reason and was forced to add a “d” making it Boyland in order to get his job back. Legend or true - it is a good story!

Col Steven A Boylan has another unique family name story: Steven A. Boylan’s great-grandparents emigrated to the USA via Ellis Island from Austria. As far as family folklore goes, the family name was originally “Berlin”, but with Gramp’s thick Austrian (“Governator-like”) accent, the immigration official on Ellis Island (who perhaps was of Irish descent) simply converted the name from “Berlin” to “Boylan”. Welcome to the Clan Col. Boylan!

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