Mallory

Mallory is a Norman name. No way any family would use a name that meant unfortunate or unlucky. Much more likely was wearer of chain mail as they would have come to England with William the Conquerer.

I adore this name. I did some research. Mal in Hebrew means messenger. Mallory in German is Army Counselor. I find it odd that this is assumed to be a French name because their names generally have an -ie ending (Valerie from Valeria, Melanie from Melania, Stephanie/Stefanie from Stephania/Stefania). And if this word came from Malaria as it has stated it would be spelled Malarie in French.

It actually come from "Mallaury" (who's actually the original one) because it's from "Malus Augurus" in Latin, which translates into Mauvaise augure in French (bad omen in English). From Malus came Mall and Augurus, with a change in handwriting, became Aury, Mallaury. In Celtic culture (or just the old ways, not sure about where it was), it was actually a boy's name. It "came back to life" during the 20th centuries. My knowledge of the name extends this far, but from where it comes, I can imagine that it might not have been an easy name to wear, and it's surely not a Saint's name.

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EDIT: Read some comment and realized "experts" (don't know them, don't know if they are), say it comes from a place name or old french. As I said, Latin isn't old french. It's a language born in Italia, in Latium. But the name was commonly used in French Britain and Great Britain. In my personal belief, it could come from "Malorie" or "Mallorie" or even "Mallory" but well, I still think that the best guess is the Latin origin.

Mallory is an anglicisation of an old Irish name. Mal means servant, one possible translation is mal o righ - servant of the king. There are other possible words, but mal is a very common beginning to Irish names, like Malcolm, servant of st Columba.
Unfortunate is not a pleasant connotation for a name, if this were mine, I'd lay claim to the Irish association.

From old French meaning "to be mailed" in reference to a knight's armor.

After considerable research, I am convinced that the "meaning" of "unfortunate" for this name is entirely in error and the victim of seriously sloppy syllabic interpretation. Mallory is indeed a French surname coming over to England with the Normans. Almost all Norman surnames were derived from a place name, and Mallory is no exception. There were at least two villages in France at that time called "Meillorie" (possible spelling). This village name is again derived from the linen breaking mills (meillories in French) that were located at these villages. Meillorie is from the ancient Latin root 'molere' (mele-), meaning to crush or grind with a turning motion, a mill. Simple deduction leads to the conclusion that, far from meaning 'unfortunate', Mallory means 'crusher'!

As I understand it, the reason experts on surnames believe that Mallory comes from the Old French word for "unlucky" is that all the earliest examples give the surname without any preposition. If it came from a place name, one would expect to find examples of persons with the name in medieval records where the name was given as "de Maloret". Plus all the early examples I've seen published do have a, not e, as the vowel in the first syllable. The oldest example, from Domesday Book in 1086, spells the name Maloret. So unless "biloxi" can find medieval references using "de" or with "e" in the first syllable, the expert opinion seems more likely to me.