Malloy
An Irish surname usually treated as a form of Malone or Maloney, ultimately from a Gaelic personal name meaning "devotee of St. John."
The #2,200 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,660 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Malloy is generally taken as an Anglicized Irish surname related to Mallory, Malone, and Maloney. These names are commonly linked to the Gaelic personal name Maol Eoin, meaning "follower" or "devotee of St. John," though 19th-century sources often grouped several similar surnames together rather loosely. In practice, Malloy is usually treated as an Irish form arising from the same Gaelic naming tradition rather than from a separate English root.
History
The surname is well represented in Irish and Irish-American records, and in older reference works it is often listed alongside Mallory, Malone, and Maloney as a related family name. The spelling Malloy is especially common in English-language records from the 18th and 19th centuries, where Gaelic names were frequently standardized in several different ways. Modern bearers are concentrated in Ireland, Britain, the United States, and other diaspora communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In old surname lists, Malloy is often shown right beside Mallory and Maloney, reflecting how flexibly Irish names were spelled before standardization.
From the historical record
“Mains, Mais, Makechnie, Makinley, Markers, Malan, Malany, Malier, Maliff ; Maley, Malley, Mally, and Malye ; Mallon, Mallory, Malloy, Maloy, Malone and Maloon, Maloney, Manahan and Manahen, Mandell, Mandluff, Maney, Mani- dere, Manigan, Manion, Manix and Mannix, Manks, Manogue, Mansur, Mara, Maralius, Marfan…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)