MacDonald? or MacDonald of the isles?

[Nathan]

My ancestors are from Uig, then Staffin, on the forth end of the Trotternish Peninsula of Skye. Viking blood.

I have documents that show we have spelled our name Macdonald - no big D in the middle - for 11 generations now.

My grandfather Murdoch told me Macdonald with the small d was an indication of Island Scots while the big D MacDonalds were highlanders.

I have delved into this pretty extensively and apart from family lore that’s usually incorrect outside of that family, there is no consistent significance to spelling variations of MacDonald. My family are Hebridean stock. We were MacDhomnuill then McDonald now MacDonald.

The English spelling is only an approximation of our real name and the variations are meaningless for the most part.