Maolcholuim

This name is composed of two elements: from the Old Irish and Proto-Celtic “máel” (bald, bare, shaved, shorn, tonsured ‘chief, prince’), plus the Gaelic “Coluim / Cuilén,” meaning “whelp, young dog.” Coluim is also used as a Scottish form of “Columba,” from the Latin “cŏlumba,” meaning “dove.” Mael is an Old Celtic name from Ireland, Wales, and Brittany. It was popularized by a 5th-century saint Maël who lived in Wales). St. Mael was a hermit of Wales, sometimes called Mabel. He was a disciple of St. Cadfan, whom he accompanied from Brittany, France, to Wales and then to the island of Bardsey. Saint Columba (Irish: Colm Cille, ‘church dove’) was an Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. He founded the famous abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts and is remembered today as a Christian saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.