Devlin
An Irish surname usually linked to a Gaelic personal name meaning “fierce” or “unlucky,” though older writers also connected it with Dublin.
The #2,774 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 23,724 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Devlin is generally treated as an anglicized Irish surname from Gaelic forms such as Ó Doibhilin or Ó Dubhshlaine in older scholarship, though the exact derivation has long been debated. The name is commonly explained as coming from a Gaelic personal name with a sense like “unlucky,” “fateful,” or “fierce,” rather than from any English word. Some 19th- and early-20th-century writers also suggested a connection with Dublin, but that explanation is now usually regarded as less secure.
History
The surname is found in Irish records and later appears widely in Ireland and among Irish emigrant communities. Historical surname lists place Devlin especially in the north and west of Ireland, and it became common in the United States through Irish migration. The name’s spelling was fixed in English in several forms, including Devlin and Develin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers sometimes grouped Devlin with names that looked like place-names or words of gloomy meaning, which shows how speculative 19th-century surname etymology could be.
From the historical record
“field, Connecticut ; jNIr. Teufel (German for devil) at Bridgeport ; and this last is com- mon in New York. Indeed, our name of Hell is, I believe, pronounced as if spelt with an e. And we have Deuell, Diehl, Devlin, and Debell. Himmel (German for heacen) was a well-known German composer. Eden is the name of a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom