Mac, Scottish and Irish Gaelic surname prefix meaning “son.” It is equivalent to the Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman Fitz and the Welsh Ap (formerly Map). Just as the latter has become initial P, as in the modern names Price or Pritchard, Mac has in some names become initial C and even K—e.g., Cody, Costigan, Keegan.
The Gaelic countries were among the earliest to adopt hereditary surnames, their introduction in Ireland dating from the 11th century (with a few early ones in the 10th). A cursory examination of early medieval Gaelic records gives the impression that surnames in the modern sense were in use much earlier, because such personal names as Domhnall Mac Gormain occur continually. This name, however, does not in fact imply the existence of the surname MacGorman in the 9th century but merely indicates that this Domhnall (Donnell) was the son of a man whose Christian name was Gorman. Similarly, Dermot O’Tierney was simply Dermot the grandson of a man called Tierney (Ua, later shortened to O, means grandson or, more loosely, descendant).
Most names that contain Mac are formed from a Christian name, as is Mac Aonghusa (modern MacAinsh or MacGuinness, which both derive from the forename now anglicized as Angus). Many have been still farther removed from their original form by the substitution of the terminal -son for the prefix Mac—e.g., Ferguson. Several of the best-known Mac names embody Norse forenames—e.g., the Scottish MacCorquadale, the Irish MacManus, or Irish MacLoughlin (MacLachlan in Scotland). Later, Norman names were likewise incorporated—e.g., MacCostello—and in more recent times, especially in Scotland, surnames like MacDicken and MacRitchie have been formed from modern Christian names.
Most English surnames are formed from trades, personal attributes, or places. The first two categories occur also in the Gaelic system, though less frequently. Instances are MacDuff, Duffie (and even MacPhie, all from dubh, “black”), and Macateer (mac an t-saoir, “son of the carpenter,” sometimes translated to give the surname Carpenter). Place-names, naturally, do not combine readily with Mac.
In Gaelic Scotland there are now relatively few O names. Ogilvie is a toponym (a place-name derivation). Usually -Gil- here is giolla, “follower” or “devotee” (usually associated with Christ or with the name of some saint—e.g., Gilchrist or Gilmartin). It is rare with O but frequent with Mac, as, for example, in MacElroy, MacIlwaine, MacLennan, MacClellan. There are numerous modern anglicized forms of names beginning in Gaelic with mac giolla—e.g., Mac Giolla Riabhaigh, which gives MacGillreavy, MacGilrea, MacElreavy, MacIlrea, MacAreavy, MacIlravy, MacElreath, MacIlwraith, Gallery, occasionally Kilgray, and even Gray, as well as other minor variants. Indeed, some of the more corrupt forms of such names bear little resemblance to their original: it is hard to recognize Mac Gtolla Bhrighde (“son of the devotee of St. Brigid”) in Mucklebreed (a synonym of MacBride in County Armagh). Meikleham for MacIlquham is a Scottish example of this.
MacAinsh, mentioned above, is an anglicized form approximating phonetically the original Gaelic Mac Aonghusa; in Scotland it has also become MacInnes, MacNeish, and MacQuinness, while in Ireland it is MacGuinness. This last name illustrates a tendency, particularly in Ulster, whereby Mac names followed by an initial G are contracted; thus MacGuinness (also written MacGennis) becomes Magennis, MacGuire becomes Maguire, and MacGee, Magee.
In Ulster Mac names outnumber O’s, largely on account of the number of families of Scottish stock which settled there from the time of the plantation of Ulster early in the 17th century. Elsewhere in Ireland O’s outnumber Mac’s, although in one western county (County Clare) the two most numerous names have historically been MacMahon and Macnamara. A Macnamara in that locality is invariably known colloquially as Mac, and children of Macnamara families were sometimes formerly registered as Mack. The same abbreviation occurs to a lesser extent in other counties for different Mac names.
In Scotland the Mac prefix has been generally retained, but in Ireland, as a result of the Gaelic submergence in the 18th century, it was widely discarded, as was the cognate O. Thus Carthy was used for MacCarthy, Keogh for MacKeogh, and so on. It is interesting to note that since the 1890s these prefixes have been resumed to a considerable extent.
It was once a popular illusion that the bearer of a Mac name was Scottish (it is hard to know how it ever arose with names like MacMahon, MacCarthy, and MacDermot so common). Another fallacy has proven much more resilient, however: that the Mc form is Scottish and the Mac form Irish (sometimes the reverse is asserted). This is entirely without foundation. Both forms are used indiscriminately, Mc being, of course, simply an abbreviation of Mac, as is M’ (now nearly obsolete but once widely used).