The Various Spellings of the Surname

The descendants of Dhòmhnaill (rendered Donald in English) of Islay have many variations in the way the surname is spelled. The oldest Gaelic documents render the name as mhic dhòmhnaill. The prefix mhic, pronounced " 'ic" or "vic" with a very soft "v", means descendant of and has been rendered Mc, Mac, and even M'.  The "mh" was often written as an .m(with a dot over it) to designate the Gaelic "mh" sound as shown by the 1408 signature of Donald of Harlaw, Lord of the Isles, "McDo.mnaill".  The "dh" denotes a breath sound from the back of the throat in Gaelic only used when addressing another person by that name.   When stating your own name in Gaelic it is properly pronounced more like a "d" in English which may be why Donald of Harlaw signed "McDo.mnaill".   

 In Gaelic a "dh" followed by an "ò" is often pronounced similar to a gluttal "g" or "c" in the back of the throat which explains the MacConnell and MacDonell spellings more common in Gaelic speaking areas of the Highlands and Ireland.  The "dh" sound is not found in English and the specific Gaelic grammar rules regarding its use are totally foreign to English speaking people.  So the "dh" became a "d" very early in the transition to English.  The ò  in Gaelic  indicates a long vowel sound, in this case "oo".   In English that became a soft "o" sound more like "ah".  Over the centuries the surname has evolved considerably.

Pure Gaelic surnames began in a patronymic form indicating a son (mac) or daughter (nic) of the father's given name.  Mhic was used to indicate multiple generations such as Sòmhairlidh mac Gillabride mhic Gilledomnán, or the Chief of Keppoch's title Ranald of Lochaber Mac Mhic Raonuill (Gaelic = son of Ranall's son).  When the Scottish General Register Office started registering surnames in 1856 and again in 1901 they registered more McDonalds in Scotland than MacDonalds.  MacDonnell and MacConnell were included as less common spellings of the same name.   These spellings became more popular when  the chief of Glengarry adopted the "MacDonell" spelling as "closer to the original Gaelic".  In 1860 the Scottish General Register combined all the various spellings as one name which made MacDonald (including McDonald, MacConnell, and MacDonell) the second most frequent name in Scotland (Smith was #1).  Each registry since has had more Mac's than Mc's and they have recorded them as two different names rather than alternate spellings of the same name.  They have continued to include MacDonell as a variation of Macdonald (the small "d" was another Clan Donald chief's preference).  That, of course, dropped both spellings down the list considerably (today MacDonald is the 9th most frequent name in Scotland and McDonald the 24th).  The Mac spelling is more frequently found in Scotland and Canada.  Mc is more frequently found in other countries such as the USA, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. The 1990 USA census listed McDonald the 117th most frequent surname and MacDonald the 821st most frequent in the USA (McDaniel @302, McConnell @ 722, and Donaldson @ 786 are all more frequent spellings than MacDonald in the USA).  One problem encountered when trying to determine the "original spelling of the name" is that various renderings are often found in the same document. 

 The March 30, 1538 letter granting The Chief of Glengarry his lands rendered Glengarry's clan in English as "MacConeyllis kin" . The modern names McDonald, McDonnell, McConnell, MacDonald, MacDonell, McDaniel, McDonough, Macdonald, and even Donaldson are all attempts at rendering the original Gaelic name in English.  Anciently neither the prefix mac or the patronymic name were capitalized (as in mhic dhòmhnaill). Later variations such as adding capital letters and combining the name into one word depended on the region and how the chief spelled his name.  The most obvious example being  the signatures found in the 3rd volume of The Clan Donald history completed in 1904.

The authors of The Clan Donald (who spelled their name "Macdonald") included 11 pages of signatures of prominant members of Clan Donald. Despite the multiple signatures, written in their own hand with various spellings chosen by those who signed their names, the authors chose to type each name "Macdonald" at the bottom of each page.  Several of the signatures are spelled "MackDonald". Whatever motive the authors had, they went to great effort to show consistency where there was none.  In reality there were multiple acceptable ways to spell the surname when this beautiful history was published in 1904. 

Immigration records and conformity to accepted spellings in the Scottish immigrant's new land often accounted for changes. Some Glengarry McDo.mnaills changed the spelling when they immigrated to areas where the name was commonly spelled MacDonald or McDonald. The spelling of the name may or may not indicate from which branch of Clan Donald you are descended. You will be more successful tracing your ancestry if you don't impose modern spelling practices on our ancestors. Our name is hundreds of years older than the current practice of only one acceptable spelling of a word.  Differences in spelling may be helpful in tracing your specific family line in Clan Donald, but eventually you may find your ancestors changed the spelling more than once.  All the variations eventually trace back to the original mhic dhòmhnaill or McDo.mnaill.