What's in a name?

[~JM~]

I was thinking about the way my family spells and writes it name. We are McIntyre's and my father, grandfather and his father have drawn two small lines under the "c" in McIntyre. My grandfather doesn't know why his father taught him to write it like that and it's been passed on without anyone remembering why or for how long we've been doing it.

Has anyone else seen this done with names? Anyone know why?

Thanks.

j

[Bugbear]

I'm not sure, but that might be a typesetting practice from back in the day to make the "c" superscript. I don't recall the lines having any meaning under a letter like that, but it's been about ten or eleven years sense I had to worry about those things in college.

[Arlen]

Sounds like it may have started as a way to politely point out that it was Mc and not Mac.

My family are just plain old 'Donald', but whenever I was writing a Mc or Mac name my dad always drummed it into me NOT to capitalize the second part of the name.

[beloitpiper]

Yeah, I know a few people who superscript the "c" in "Mc" instead of just lowercasing it. Just a stylistic thing, I guess. I think it's cool.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

It is an abrv. like Wm. for William, or Geo. for George. Generally the difference arose when writing a name like MacDonald as Macdonald. Those who wished to cling to the capital M capital D would abbreviate their signature McDonald (I can't do the raised "c" over the lines here). Over time the accepted spelling became McD, or McWhatever. As Gaelic names became more commonly translated into English, English spelling rules were applied, hence Mac Millan (two words) became MacMillan (one word) and because English rarely has capital letters appearing in the middle of a word it was further modified to Macmillan. Those old fuddy-duddies who didn't want to alter their name just to satisfy "English" spelling rules used the rather elegant affectation of using the Mc abbreviation which forced the issue of using the second capital letter. The two little lines (or sometimes dots) under the "c" indicate the absence of the letter "a".

[macwilkin]

Sounds like it may have started as a way to politely point out that it was Mc and not Mac.

My family are just plain old 'Donald', but whenever I was writing a Mc or Mac name my dad always drummed it into me NOT to capitalize the second part of the name.

Reminds of A River Runs Though It When the Rev. Maclean tells Norman that his brother Paul has changed the spelling of their name to MacLean, and that everyone will think they are Lowlanders now! :mrgreen:

T.

[Nick the DSM]

well, theirs letters in a name.

[kmaclea]

Sounds like it may have started as a way to politely point out that it was Mc and not Mac.

My own family had this same tradition that when MacLea was spelled McLea it should always have two lines under the c. It was explained to me that this was in fact the opposite of the above--to indicate that it was supposed to be "Mac" not "Mc"!

Even so, I have come to know that Mc Mac or as you sometimes see in Scottish records M', are all the same thing. They are all the abbreviation for the gaelic patronymic. My grandparents insisted Mac was correct. Some of his siblings said Mc. Fact is, you can find both in the records going back to the 1600s (although I would say "Mc" is more common even in my family).

Does it matter? I once thought so (in keeping with my grandparents opinions) but no longer do. There are far more important things out there. Plus, since they all boil down to the same thing, they are all variations on the same thing.

Still, I'll keep my spelling, but teach my children and nieces and nephews that regardless of how my family and clansmen spell it--they're still family!

Kyle=

[Coemgen]

[gilmore]

The idea that there are correct and incorrect ways to spell words is a fairly modern notion, dating back to only the first half of the 19th Century, less than 200 years ago, when dictionaries were first introduced. Before then everyone spelled words as they sounded to them. So Mac, Mc, M', and other variations are all equally correct or equally incorrect, as is whether the patronymic prefix is separated from the rest of the name.

I have a copy of a deed from the 1750's in which my surname was recorded in the index of deed book under one spelling, spelled a second way when the clerk copied it in the body of the deed, and shows my ancestor's signature's having been copied in a third spelling, presumably by the same clerk, the way we happen to spell it today.