Mac vs Mc

Mc is typically a sign of Anglicization, though it often happened without the person whose name it was consenting to the variant spelling. There are instances in large clans where two brothers have variant spellings.

Early 1900's America when so many Irish were coming over to escape the famine and poverty, the Mc was pronounced Mic and used as a derogatory term for the Irish.

No kidding, I've seen it. "SMALL 'D'! SMALL 'D' DAMN YOU!"

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Yeah, I have to do this a LOT ... except in my case it's the capital. And not the letter D. Even if my name is on a submitted form there's a 50-50 chance it comes out wrong anyway. I had to get my high school to redistribute my diploma.

Here's everything you need to know about patronyms.

In the US they're pretty random, depending upon how literate the immigration and census people were. We have Macs and Mcs, sometimes all in the same immediate family. And you don't even want to know what horrors of misspelling can be performed upon the name of MacLean. It isn't pretty, I'll tell you that.

Mac or Mc

Mac is generally Scottish and Mc is Irish, but there are of course exceptions. Both are found widely in Scotland and Ireland.

It means "son of" So McKay is "son of Kay" way back when.

Huge influx of Irish at end of 19th century into US where, like any large immigrant group, they were immediately shunned and it was considered low class to have an Irish name, hence some changed to "Mac" for more "class" at that time.

I *hope* they are interchangeable, as we named one of our children "Macmillan" after grandma's maiden name of McMillan and I'm not changing the birth certificate! LOL

We went with Mac instead of Mc because Mc is a terrible nickname.

Jenan Mac said:

And you don't even want to know what horrors of misspelling can be performed upon the name of MacLean. It isn't pretty, I'll tell you that.

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You think you got problems? Try a last name like Mc Pugh! (Think Hugh, not Pug). And no fair holding your nose.

My last name is Mac Adam. Capital M and Capital A with a space.

That is the correct way to spell it. j/k

Kathie Freeman said:

You think you got problems? Try a last name like Mc Pugh! (Think Hugh, not Pug). And no fair holding your nose.

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Perhaps you could drop this final 'h' and actually become McPug. That sounds kinda cute and people would have less problem spelling it. You could even put a pug in your family crest.