Is there a way to tell if a Scottish surname originated with the Scots, Picts, Normans, Anglo-Saxon or Norse? Would it be accurate to assume that most "Mc" and "Mac" prefixes came over from Ireland with the Scots?
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Is there a way to tell if a Scottish surname originated with the Scots, Picts, Normans, Anglo-Saxon or Norse? Would it be accurate to assume that most "Mc" and "Mac" prefixes came over from Ireland with the Scots?
Would have to have good local and national knowledge of Scottish surnames to know. Mc Mac is gaelic yes but also Norse-Gael. For example Like MacAuley, Macleod are Norse-Gael etc.. which have been anglicised much later to complicate it.
I found this interesting site, what do you think?
http://www.scottishhistory.com/artic...c/macvsmc.html
How about the name Donaldson? I can't figure what it is, I assume Scottish?!
looks good, shall give it a sound look.
easy Scottish like all Donalds/McDonalds,MacDonalds originally, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Donald
Also MacDonnell near Northern Ireland/Scotland
and Clan MacDonell of GlengarryQuote:
Rathlin has been the site of a number of infamous massacres. An expedition in 1557 by Sir Henry Sidney in 1557 devastated the island. The massacre in July 1575, when the Earl of Essex ordered a force to the island, led by Francis Drake and John Norreys. The English killed hundreds of the women and children of Clan MacDonnell, who had taken refuge there. Also in 1642 Covenanter Campbell soldiers of the Argyll's Foot were encouraged by their commanding officer Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck to kill the local Catholic MacDonalds, near relatives of their arch Clan enemy in the Scottish Highlands Clan MacDonald. This they did with ruthless efficiency throwing scores of MacDonald women over cliffs to their deaths on rocks below. The number of victims of this massacre has been put as low as one hundred and as high as three thousand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Ma...l_of_Glengarry
Graham, does the clan system in Scotland come from the Scots or the Picts?
Northern italian surname "Scotti", for example, derived from medieval mercenaries used by Lombardy, Venice and Savoie-Piemont.
Quite diffused surname, btw.
http://www.gens.info/lib/cog/maps/cognomi/S/SCOTTI.gif