Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : reduced form O’Spillane, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Spealáin or ‘descendant of Spealán’, a personal name representing a diminutive of speal ‘scythe’. Compare Smullen. In some cases the name may be a reduced Anglicized form of Mac Spealáin ‘son of Spealán’.