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McCullough Coat of Arms

These are two of the five McCullough Coat of Arms

The meanings behind the symbols and colors of the coat of arms

Argent (Silver or White)	Sincerity, Peace
Gules (Red)	Warrior, Martyr, Military Strength

Sable (Black)

Constancy, Grief

Helmet

Wise defense

McCullough, McCullagh, McCullogh, McCulloch, McCallow

While not in the list of the hundred most numerous surnames in Ireland, MacCullagh, MacCullough and other spelling variants such as MacCollough and MacCulloch combined constitute one of our most numerous names, with an estimated population in Ireland of nearly 5,000 persons. Together they constitute one of the fifty most common names in Ulster and eighty to ninety per cent of those of the name in Ireland are of that province, principally Antrim, Down and Tyrone.

Petty's “census” reveals a similar position in 1659, when MacCullough and variants was listed as among the principal Irish names in the baronies of Antrim, Belfast, Carrickfergus and Toome in Co. Antrim and Lower Iveagh in Co. Down. In the previous century the Annals of Loch Cé tell us that Seamus Mac Con Uladh was killed at Dunbo (near Coleraine) in 1532. This name is given by the learned editor in his index as MacCullagh. Today in Ulster about one-third use the -agh ending and most of the remainder the -ough, although MacCullow and MacCulloch are also found. The -ough spelling is very much more common in counties Antrim and Down, but it must be remembered that the spellings do not necessarily denote the origins of any particular family.

Treating of Mac Con Uladh (son of the hound of Ulster) Woulfe gives MacAnully, MacNully, MacAnaul, MacCullow etc., but not MacCullough as a modern or early anglicised form. According to him the Irish form of MacCullough is Mac Colla (sometimes Mac Collach) derived from Colla, a personal name in use in MacDonnell and MacSweeney families. Woulfe's opinion cannot be accepted here. There is no doubt that the Irish form of MacCullough is either Mac Cú Uladh or Mac Con Uladh. The reason for the alternative forms is that in later times Cú Uladh was regarded as one word and so cú did not change in the genitive. From the later form came the pronunciation which gave the anglicisation MacCullough. Dr. Hayes-McCoy considered that the MacCollas were galloglass families.

The most exhaustive source for sixteenth century Irish surnames is the Fiants: therein we find MacAnulla (Belfast); but MacColla, MacCullo(c) and MacCullowe were mainly Connacht, though occasionally Ulster. The Composition Book of Connacht (1585) records Rory MacCollo of Beeklone, Co. Galway, and Rory MacHugh MacCullogh of Bollindrone, Co. Sligo, as men of substance. As the large scale migration from north-west Ulster to north Connacht did not take place until the next century it would appear that there was an independent sept of MacCullough originating in north Connacht, though it must be observed that there is no mention of such in the Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach or in the Annals of Connacht, except for the 1532 death recorded in those of Loch Cé and noted above.

The name MacCulloch is also that of an important Scottish family. This name is traditionally derived from the Scots-Gaelic word culach, a boar, and in this connection it is interesting to note that in Co. Sligo, within living memory, Boar and Bower were in use as synonyms of MacCullagh. These MacCulloughs can be of two origins. MacCulloch is and was common in the province of Galloway, whence stemmed so many of the Ulster settlers. Its origins, however, are totally obscure, and although it has been suggested that it derives from the Scots Gaelic Mac Cullaich, it is possible that it too derives from Mac Cú Uladh and represents previous Irish settlers in Galloway. This theory is reinforced by the fact that the MacCulloughs of Ireland and the MacCollochs of Scotland claim similar coats of arms.

Either way, it is known that it makes its first appearance in the Scottish records in 1296, when Thomas Maculagh del counte de Wiggetone (now Wigtown) rendered homage to Edward I. His family later held castles at Gatehouse of Fleet in Kirkcudbrightshire, and Creetown and Port William in Wigtownshire. It was in Galloway that the softened form MacCully arose, though it is also found in Tyrone as a variant of the Ulster name MacCullough or MacCullagh. (Cully as a native Ulster name can derive from MacCullough, especially in Tyrone, or from O'Cully, Gaelic Ó Colla, a name from counties Armagh and Antrim.) Also in Wigtownshire, many of the Kellys and MacKellys changed their name to MacCulloch.

Yet another connection of MacCulloughs, those of Oban in Argyllshire, belonged to Clan Dougall and were originally called MacLulich. This name, in Gaelic Mac Lulaich, meant 'son of Lulach' (an obsolete personal name derived from the Old Gaelic “lu” and “laogh”, meaning “little calf”). The progenitor of this family was MacCulloch Lulach, the son of Gillacomgan, Mormaer of Moray. MacCulloch Lulach became King of Scots when (notwithstanding Shakespeare's account) he succeeded MacBeth. Within a matter of months, however, he too was killed and was succeeded by Malcolm Canmore, circa 1157.

James MacCulloch of Wigtownshire was one of the fifty Scottish undertakers of the Ulster Plantation and in 1610 he was granted 1000 acres in Glenties in Donegal. Though he lost his grant four years later, he and his tenants remained.

James MacCullagh, 1809-47, a brilliant mathematician and physicist, was born in Upper Badoney, Co. Tyrone. His suicide at the young age of thirty-eight was thought to have been caused by a fit of madness brought on by overwork. John Edward MacCullagh, 1837-85, who became a famous actor in the USA, was born in Coleraine, Co. Derry. Joseph Bumbridge MacCullagh (1843-1896), born in Dublin, who has been called "the father of the interview."

Heraldry

The same coat of arms is claimed by both Scottish MacCullochs and Irish MacCulloughs.

Ermine fretty Gules. Crest: A hand throwing a dart all proper. Motto: vi et animo (I live and breathe).

courtesy of http://www.araltas.com/features/mccullough/