Frequency: (741)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Scottish and northern Irish: probably a variant of MacAuslan, which according to Black is an Anglicization of Mac Ausaláin ‘son of Absolom’, from the name of an early 13th-century cleric. However, there may rather be an underlying Gaelic personal name, possibly Caisealán, meaning ‘little one of the castle’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
