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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Cillín, a pet form of Ceallach (see Kelly). The name was borne by various early Irish saints, including the leader of a 7th-century mission to Franconia and Thuringia, hence the popularity of the personal name Kilian in medieval central Europe.

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