Nolan

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic Gaelic Irish: chiefly the Ó Nualláin of Fothairt in Leinster, with smaller, unrelated families in Cork, Mayo, Roscommon and Fermanagh whose names were also made Nolan.^[1][2][3][4]

The name is built on the personal name Nuallán, usually explained as “a diminutive of nuall, 'famous' or 'noble'”. Woulfe and Wikipedia agree on this gloss. The unrelated Uallachán, behind some Connacht Nolans, comes from uallach, 'proud'.^[1][5][3]

Place

Where the Nolans lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Nolan lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

The name over time

History

Chiefs of Fothairt

The main Nolan family belonged to Fothairt Fea, also called Fothairt Mag Feá, 'the Fothairt of the plain of beeches', which survives as the barony of Forth in east Carlow. The Fothairt were a medieval Leinster people, named in the annals from early times and closely linked with St Brigid's monastery at Kildare. Their territory was ravaged by the men of Ossory in the mid-8th century. The annals name an Eochaidh Ua Nualláin as lord of the Fothairt in 1133, and Woulfe describes his family as numerous and respectable.^[8][9][1]

Marshals of the Leinster kings

Woulfe records that the head of the family had the privilege of inaugurating MacMurrough as king of Leinster. John Rooney's genealogical history of 1895 says the O'Nolans were marshals of Leinster and presided at these ceremonies, which he places at a site called Cnoc-an-Bogha, with O'Nolan attending as the king's marshal and chief of Forth. Rooney's account is antiquarian rather than scholarly, but it agrees with Woulfe on the essential role of the O'Nolans in the making of a Leinster king.^[1][12][13]

Pedigrees and descent

The 19th-century genealogists traced the O'Nolans to Eochaidh Fionn Fothart, said to be a younger brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles, whose descendants gave their name to the baronies of Forth in both Carlow and Wexford. Burke records the O'Nowlans as chiefs of Fotharta-Fea, of the same race as the O'Mores of Laois, deriving their surname from a chief called Nuallain. Wikipedia similarly cites a modern writer linking the O'Nolans with the Loígis. These early pedigrees cannot be checked against independent records and should be read with caution.^{[14][10][5][15]}

From Carlow to Galway and France

Rooney says the family kept substantial lands into the 17th century, backed James II in the Williamite war, and suffered heavily after the Williamite victory, with many going to France to serve in the Irish Brigade. A branch was established in Connacht: Burke records the Nolans of Ballinderry and Portacarron, Co. Galway, as descendants of the O'Nolans, noting that Patrick Nolan of Ballinderry received land in Mayo and Galway under Charles II. His representative in Burke's day was John Philip Nolan of Ballinderry, near Tuam, the Galway MP.^[12][10][16]

Nolans of other origins

Not every Nolan descends from the chiefs of Forth. Woulfe records a separate Ó Nualláin family among the Corca Laoighdhe in south-west Cork, and a Mac Nualláin family common in Mayo. He also shows how other names were drawn into Nolan: Ó hUallacháin, otherwise Houlihan, became Nolan in Mayo and Roscommon, and the rare Fermanagh name Ó hUltacháin was often disguised as Nolan too. A Nolan family from Connacht or Ulster may therefore have quite different roots from one in Carlow or Wexford.^[1][2][3][4]

Places linked to the name

• Forth (barony) (Fothairt), Co. Carlow — The old Fothairt Fea, whose chiefs were the Ó Nualláin.^[8][1]
• Forth (barony) (Fotharta), Co. Wexford — Another Fothairt territory, which O'Hart also connects with the O'Nolans' ancestors.^[15][9][14]
• Ballinderry, near Tuam, Co. Galway — Seat of the Nolans of Ballinderry, descendants of the O'Nolans, and family home of the MP John Philip Nolan.^[10][16]

Everyday lives

The Nolans in the census

Who the Nolans were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

Nolans All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Nolan bar

Given names

First names among the Nolans

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, James, Michael, Thomas; Mary, Bridget, Margaret, Annie, Elizabeth.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Related forms

• O'Nolan — The form keeping the O prefix, used for example by the writer Brian O'Nolan.^[1][6]
• Nowlan, O'Nowlan — Older spellings; Burke files the chiefs of Forth under O'Nowlan.^[1][10]
• Noland, O'Noland — Spellings Woulfe records among the English forms of Ó Nualláin.^[1]
• Houlihan, Holohan — Usual forms of Ó hUallacháin, a name sometimes rendered Nolan in Connacht.^[3]

Diaspora

The Nolans abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a Nolan coat of arms?

People

Notable people named Nolan

• Julia Nolan (1611–1701)
  Prioress of the Dominican nuns in Galway from 1686 to 1701.
• Louis Nolan (1818–1854)
  British cavalry officer and tactician killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
• John Philip Nolan (1838–1912)
  Galway landowner, army officer and Irish Parliamentary Party MP.
• Lloyd Nolan (1902–1985)
  American actor who created the role of Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial on stage.
• Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien) (1911–1966)
  Strabane-born novelist and satirist, author of At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman.
• Sidney Nolan (1917–1992)
  One of the leading Australian painters of the 20th century.
• Christopher Nolan (1965–2009)
  Irish poet and author from Mullingar.
• Coleen Nolan (born 1965)
  Singer with her sisters in the Irish-English group the Nolans, later a television presenter.
• Christopher Nolan (born 1970)
  British-American film director of complex Hollywood blockbusters.
• Owen Nolan (born 1972)
  Belfast-born Canadian ice hockey forward, first overall NHL draft pick in 1990.
• Stephen Nolan (born 1973)
  Northern Irish radio and television presenter for the BBC.
• Megan Nolan (born 1990)
  Irish novelist and columnist, author of Acts of Desperation.

Questions

Questions about the Nolan name

Evidence

Sources

1. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Nualláin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
2. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Nualláin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
3. Patrick Woulfe, Ó hUallacháin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
4. Patrick Woulfe, Ó hUltacháin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
5. Wikipedia, Nolan (surname) (2026)
6. Wikipedia, Flann O'Brien (2026)
7. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Nuallacháin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
8. Wikipedia, Forth (County Carlow barony) (2026). Its statement on the Uí Nualláin rests on a user-generated source.
9. Wikipedia, Fothairt (2026)
10. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'O'Nowlan' and 'Nolan'.
11. Wikipedia, Corcu Loígde (2026)
12. John Rooney, The Nolan Family, in A Genealogical History of Irish Families (1895). A 19th-century genealogical compilation; used with caution.
13. John Rooney, The McMorrough Family, in A Genealogical History of Irish Families (1895)
14. John O'Hart, Nowlan (No. 1), in Irish Pedigrees (1892)
15. Wikipedia, Forth (County Wexford barony) (2026)
16. Wikipedia, John Philip Nolan (2026)
17. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.
18. Irish forms cross-checked against Gaois surname data (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU).

How we compile these figures: methodology.