Whelan
An Irish surname, most often taken as an anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Faoláin / Ó Faoilain, related to the personal name meaning “wolf.”
The #3,181 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,171 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Whelan is usually explained as an anglicized form of Irish Gaelic Ó Faoláin, often also written in older sources as O'Phelan. In this tradition, the name comes from a personal name built on the Gaelic word for “wolf,” so the underlying sense is roughly “descendant of Faolán,” with Faolán understood as a diminutive or related form of the wolf-name element. Older dictionaries sometimes proposed related or alternative Irish forms, but the O'Phelan/Ó Faoláin derivation is the standard explanation.
History
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Irish surname writers noted that Whelan and Phelan were often used interchangeably in records and local speech. The name is strongly associated with Ireland and Irish emigrant communities, and English spelling has varied according to local pronunciation and clerical habit. Some sources also remark that Whelan can sound like Waylen in English, though the origins are distinct.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some historical record-keepers treated Whelan and Phelan as the same family name, simply spelled in different ways.
From the historical record
“WHEILDON = Wheldon, q.v. WHELAN (Celt.) i a form of O'Phelan, q.v. 2 for the Irish O'h-Oileain = De- scendant OF OiLEAN [Ir. d or ua, grand- son -f- the intervocalic insertion h -f- the genit. of oilean, nurture, instruction] Whelch 280”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)