Show ContentsMelony History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Before Irish names were translated into English, Melony had a Gaelic form of Ó Maoldhomhnaigh, which means descendant of a servant of the Church. [1]

Early Origins of the Melony family

The surname Melony was first found in County Clare (Irish: An Clár) located on the west coast of Ireland in the province of Munster, where O'Moloney, "were chiefs of Cuiltenan, now the parish of Kiltonanlea, in the barony of Tulla." [2]

Early History of the Melony family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Melony research. Another 131 words (9 lines of text) covering the years 1601, 1690, 1709, 1726, 1865, 1900, 1925, 1937, 1949 and 1976 are included under the topic Early Melony History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Melony Spelling Variations

Official documents, crafted by early scribes and church officials, primarily contained names that were spelled according to their pronunciation. This lead to the problem of one name being recorded under several different variations, creating an illusion that a single person was many people. Among the many spelling variations of the surname Melony that are preserved in the archival documents of the time are Molony, Maloney, O'Maloney, O'Molony, MacLoughney and many more.

Early Notables of the Melony family

Prominent amongst the family at this time was Father Donough O'Molony who was tortured to death in 1601. John Mullowney (c. 1690-1726) was born in Derrew, near Ballyheane, County Mayo who began his career as a horse thief and was sentenced to death in Castlebar in his youth. The Grand Jury made a deal with him in which...
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Melony Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Melony migration to the United States +

In the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of thousands of Irish people immigrated to North American shores. The early settlers were enticed by the promise of their own land, but they were moderately well off in Ireland when they decided to emigrate. Therefore, they were merely carrying out a long and carefully thought out decision. The 1840s saw the emergence of a very different trend: thousands of extremely desperate people crammed into passenger boats hoping to find any type of opportunity. The Irish of this decade had seen their homeland severely stricken by crop failures which resulted in widespread disease and starvation. At whatever time the Irish immigrants came to North America, they were instrumental in the rapid development of the emerging nations of the United States and what would become known as Canada. An exhaustive search of passenger and immigration lists has revealed many persons bearing the name Melony, or one of its variants:

Melony Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • Dennis Melony, who arrived in Virginia in 1700 [3]
  • Edward Melony, who landed in Virginia in 1705 [3]

Canada Melony migration to Canada +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Melony Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century
  • Margaret Melony, who landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1778
  • John Melony, who arrived in Quebec in 1784

Contemporary Notables of the name Melony (post 1700) +

  • Melony Ghee Griffith, American Democratic Party politician, Member of Maryland State House of Delegates District 25, 2001; Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Maryland, 2000 [4]


  1. MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Families Their Names, Arms and Origins 4th Edition. Dublin: Irish Academic, 1982. Print. (ISBN 0-7165-2364-7)
  2. O'Hart, John, Irish Pedigrees 5th Edition in 2 Volumes. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1976. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0737-4)
  3. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  4. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, June 10) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html


Houseofnames.com on Facebook