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Carlin is of Gaelic origin and therefore Irish. There are older uses of the name in Scotland as well. (I believe there are some old stone formations with the name) It is the Anglicized version of O'Caireallain and I believe another name as well. There are other variations such as Caroll, Carlan, etc. The "O" implies descendant and I'm pretty sure a male one. The "O"s and "Mac"s were assigned to male ancestor names when surnames came about. Caireallain was probably derived from the name of a leader ancestor or a highly regarded warrior ancestor in the O'Caireallain sept history. Carlin is also a shortened version of Carlinsky, which is of Russian (Jewish) origin.

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16y ago

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