The family history of the ancient name Malone was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The ancient Irish name Malone is derived from the Gaelic O'Maoileoin sept name but is rarely rendered in English with its prefix. This name means 'devotee of St. John'. When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name.
The Malones are an ancient sept, associated with the O'Connors of Connacht, and their principal family was for centuries associated with the Abbey of Clonmacnoise, to which they provided many Abbots and Bishops. Three Malones sat in the Parliament of 1689, three served in King James II's army in Ireland and eight were attainted after 1691. One family of Malones were outstanding in the eighteenth century in Ireland. They had conformed, but were nevertheless prominent in their advocacy of Catholic emancipation.The Malone family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Malone descendants.