15,149 Global GILLILAND Family Members

GILLILAND Family History

This unusual surname is of medieval Scottish origin, and is a variant form of the name Gilfillan, itself an Anglicized version of the Old Gaelic "Mac GilleFhaolain", "son of the servant of (St.) Fillan", from "Mac", son of, "gille", servant, devotee, follower, and the saint's name, Fillan, representing a diminutive of "faol", wolf. St. Fillan was an early 8th Century abbot of Irish extraction who became a monk in County Wexford, and a solitary at Pittenweem (Fife), and later retired to Glendochart (Perthshire). His ult was sufficiently important for Robert the Bruce to take his arm relic to the battle of Bannockburn and to attribute his victory to the saint's intercession...