Macdonald surname

Wikipedia's surname article gives the Gaelic forms MacDhòmhnaill and Dòmhnallach, both meaning "son of Dòmhnall", and lists McDonnell, MacDonnell, McDonell, Donaldson and McConnell among related variants.

Evidence level D. Sources: [14]

The Scottish National Dictionary entry defines Mac as the Gaelic prefix, also written Mc and M', forming a patronymic equal to the English suffix -son. It adds that in colloquial English it is applied to anyone believed to be Scottish.

Evidence level B. Sources: [15]

Wikipedia's article on the given name derives Dòmhnall from Proto-Celtic *dumno-ualos, "world ruler" or "world wielder", with cognates Dónal in Irish, Dyfnwal in Welsh and Dumnagual in Cumbric, and says the d in Donald came partly from English speakers' misreading of the Gaelic sound.

Evidence level D. Sources: [16]

The Online Etymology Dictionary traces Donald to Gaelic Domhnall and Old Irish Domnall, glossed as "world-mighty, ruler of the world", and dates the Scottish forms Dofnald and Dufenald to the thirteenth century.

Evidence level D. Sources: [17]

A 2024 post on Omniglot's Celtic blog gives Proto-Celtic *dubnos as an adjective meaning "deep" and a noun meaning "world", and *Dubnowalos as a male given name meaning "world prince" or "chief". Sources therefore write the reconstructed first element differently (dumno- or dubno-) while agreeing on the sense.

Evidence level D. Sources: [18]

The High Council of Clan Donald calls Donald of Islay, grandson of Somerled, the progenitor of Clan Donald, rendered in Gaelic as Clann Dhòmhnaill. It describes Somerled as a twelfth-century Lord of Argyll proclaimed King of the Isles after defeating the Norse.

Evidence level C. Sources: [1]

Wikipedia calls Dòmhnall mac Raghnaill, son of Raghnall mac Somhairle, the eponymous progenitor of Clan Donald, whose descendants bore the patronymic Mac Dhòmhnaill. It says there is almost no contemporary evidence for his life and that a charter naming him, held to be issued to Paisley Abbey, is questioned because its witness list and wording resemble a verified charter of his son Aonghus Mòr.

Evidence level D. Sources: [19]

Wikipedia gives Somerled's death as 1164 at the Battle of Renfrew and names four sons by Ragnhild: Dugall, Ranald, Angus and Olaf. Clan MacDougall and the Lords of Argyll descend from Dugall, Clan Donald from Ranald's son Donald, and Clan MacRory and Clan MacAlister from other descendants of Ranald.

Evidence level D. Sources: [20]

Wikipedia's surname article names Aonghus Mòr, who died about 1293, as the first MacDonald among the early members of Clan Donald. This differs from the Clan Donald account that treats Donald of Islay, and from Wikipedia's own clan account that treats Dòmhnall mac Raghnaill, as the name-giving ancestor, so the sources are not consistent about who first carried the surname.

Evidence level D. Sources: [14][1][19]

Wikipedia dates the rule of Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, to 1386 to 1423, calls him son of John of Islay and grandson of King Robert II, and says he pressed his wife Mariota's claim to the earldom of Ross after 1402 and led about 10,000 men at Harlaw in 1411.

Evidence level D. Sources: [21]

The High Council of Clan Donald says John of Isla was the first to take the title Lord of the Isles, that the earldom of Ross was annexed to the Crown in 1475, and that John, fourth Lord of the Isles, suffered final forfeiture by the Crown in 1493.

Evidence level C. Sources: [1]

The High Council of Clan Donald traces the main branches to separate sons of the Lords: Clanranald from Ranald, eldest son of John of Isla's first marriage, with Castle Tioram on Loch Moidart as its principal seat; Sleat from Uisdean, third son of Alexander, second Lord of the Isles; Glengarry from Ranald's second son Donald; Keppoch from Alasdair Carrach, Alexander's natural son; and Glencoe from Iain Fraoch, natural son of Angus Og, whose chiefs were styled MacIain.

Evidence level C. Sources: [1]

The High Council of Clan Donald says that by the dawn of the seventeenth century Sleat, Clanranald, Glengarry, Keppoch and Glencoe had become independent clans, each with its own chief, none of whom could claim to be Mac Dhòmhnaill, a style reserved for the High Chief, which stayed vacant until 1947.

Evidence level C. Sources: [1]

Wikipedia lists Clan Macdonald of Sleat, Clanranald, Keppoch, Glencoe, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry and Clan MacAlister as branches with recognised chiefs, and Dunnyveg, Lochalsh and Ardnamurchan as historic branches without one. It says the MacDonnells of Antrim are a cadet branch of the Dunnyveg MacDonalds with a chief recognised in Ireland and do not belong to the Scottish associations.

Evidence level D. Sources: [4]

Wikipedia's page on the surname MacDonnell says it is an anglicised form of Mac Dhòmhnaill found in Scotland and Ireland, with Glengarry and Antrim among the connected branches. A search result summary of MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland, not read at source, gives McDonnell three Irish origins: a galloglass family in the Glens of Antrim, a Thomond sept and a west Ulster sept. The Gaelic name is the same on both sides of the North Channel, so spelling alone does not show a Scottish or an Irish family.

Evidence level D. Sources: [22]

ScotlandsPeople says Mac surnames were also written Mc, Mhic or M', that the same person's surname is often registered as Mc in one record and Mac in another, and that searching M*CDONALD with the asterisk wildcard returns both MCDONALD and MACDONALD entries.

Evidence level B. Sources: [2]

A popular 2014 article states that Mc is an abbreviation of Mac and that the idea of Mac as Scottish and Mc as Irish is a myth; it cites no archival example, and a commenter on it disputes the abbreviation point. The two stronger sources above, the Scottish National Dictionary and ScotlandsPeople, show Mc as a written form of Mac and give no ethnic or religious split.

Evidence level E. Sources: [23][15][2]

Wikipedia's surname article says Scottish surname statistics make no distinction between Macdonald and MacDonald, and that in the United States in 1840 McDonald was far more prevalent than Macdonald, particularly across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

Evidence level D. Sources: [14]

Wikipedia's article on Scottish surnames lists Macdonald as the 11th most common surname in Scotland at 0.52 per cent, a patronym, and says families living on lands acquired by powerful clans adopted the names of their new lords, naming Campbells, Gordons, Macdonalds and Mackenzies among the clans concerned.

Evidence level D. Sources: [5]

ScotlandsPeople says bearers of a clan surname were not necessarily descended from the clan's leaders, and that followers might adopt the clan name to curry favour with the laird, to show solidarity, for protection, or because their lands were taken. It says patronymic naming persisted in the Highlands and Islands well into the eighteenth century.

Evidence level B. Sources: [2]

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs says every person who has the same surname as the chief is deemed a member of the clan, that allegiance to the chief is another route to membership, and that there is no official list of recognised septs, which is a matter for each chief. This is a membership rule, not a finding about ancestry.

Evidence level B. Sources: [3]

Wikipedia lists MacBeth, MacColl, MacEachern, MacGillanders, MacQueen and MacSween among the septs of Clan Donald, with others. Because the Standing Council keeps no central sept list, these are one secondary source's list and not a ruling.

Evidence level D. Sources: [4][3]

Wikipedia dates the Massacre of Glencoe to 13 February 1692 and says modern research estimates around 30 deaths among the MacDonalds of Glencoe and their associates. Hamilton's men reported 38 dead and the MacDonalds said about 25 were known to be slain, so the figure is disputed. The troops were from the Earl of Argyll's Regiment under Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, about 120 men, who had been billeted among the MacDonalds for 12 days.

Evidence level D. Sources: [24]

Wikipedia says a proclamation of 26 August 1691 offered pardon to those who swore allegiance to William and Mary before 1 January 1692, that MacIain of Glencoe reached Inveraray on 6 January, five days late, and that the Secretary of State, Lord Stair, wrote on 11 January that he rejoiced that Glencoe had not taken the oaths. It says the 1695 commission concluded Stair and Hamilton had a case to answer.

Evidence level D. Sources: [24]

Wikipedia gives Flora MacDonald's birth as 1722 at Milton, South Uist, and her death as 5 March 1790 at Kingsburgh on Skye. It says she obtained permits for a party including Prince Charles Edward Stuart, disguised as Betty Burke, who landed near Uig on 27 June 1746; that she was held in the Tower of London and released in June 1747; and that she married Allan MacDonald in 1750 and emigrated to Anson County, North Carolina, in 1774.

Evidence level D. Sources: [25]

Wikipedia reports a Y-chromosome study in which, of a sample of 164 men bearing the surname MacDonald, 23 per cent carried the same marker, which belongs to haplogroup R1a, described as extremely rare in Celtic-speaking areas of Scotland but common in Norway. If the figure is right, about three quarters of the sampled MacDonalds did not share that line, and the finding bears on Somerled's male line, not on every bearer of the name. The study itself was not read.

Evidence level D. Sources: [20]

The High Council of Clan Donald says that in 1947 Alexander Godfrey Macdonald received the undifferenced arms of Macdonald of Macdonald and that Clan Donald again had a High Chief.

Evidence level C. Sources: [1]

ScotlandsPeople lists the records most useful for a Scottish line: statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages from 1 January 1855; census returns from 1841 to 1921; Old Parish Registers from 1553; valuation rolls from 1855 to 1940 at the mid-points between censuses and then every five years; and wills and testaments from 1513 to 1925. It warns that before 1855 spelling variation and handwriting are the main difficulty.

Evidence level B. Sources: [26]

Internet Archive holds George F. Black's The Surnames of Scotland (1946; the record read is the 1962 sixth reprint, 918 pages) as a borrow-only title. Its Macdonald entry was not read for this page, so no claim here rests on it.

Evidence level C. Sources: [27]