From Ó Cuilinn, ‘holly’ — a Leinster sept rooted in Wicklow, taking its name from the same tree that gives Cullen, County Tipperary, its own name.
Gaelic Origin · Root meaning ‘holly’
Cullen comes from cuileann, ‘holly’, likely first a place-name for a family settled near a stand of holly trees before it became a personal, then a family, name. The Ó Cuilinn held ground in County Wicklow, part of the broader Leinster Gaelic world alongside the Byrnes and O'Tooles.
A tree's name grown into a family's — holly being, in Gaelic tradition, a mark of endurance through winter, which this name has more than lived up to.
Irish form: Ó Cuilinn
