From Mac Toimilín — a Welsh-Norman family who settled in Mayo and became, like the Burkes and Walshes, thoroughly Irish.
Cambro-Norman Origin · Root meaning a diminutive of ‘Thomas’
Timlin is not Gaelic in its roots but Cambro-Norman — Mac Toimilín, 'son of Toimilín', built on a diminutive of Thomas. The family settled in the barony of Tirawley, County Mayo, and in time became as Irish as any of their neighbours.
By 1641, the Mayo Book of Survey and Distribution was recording them as 'the sept of Tomilins' among the local proprietors — proof of how completely they'd been absorbed. The name in its modern form still belongs almost exclusively to Mayo.
Irish form: Mac Toimilín
