Significance and provenance of the Macdonald surname

 Significance and provenance of the Macdonald surname

What does McDonald signify as a surname?

Scottish surname MacDonald is patronymic, meaning "son of Donald," derived from the Gaelic given name Mac Dhamnuill, which means "world ruler." Perhaps the most well-known Scottish clan surname is MacDonald.

Scottish immigrants who came in the seventeenth century to the province of Ulster are often the source of the MacDonald surname in Scotland. Another possibility is that it is an anglicization of MacDomnall; however, in that case, MacDonnell or O'Donnell is more often encountered.

Origin of Surname: Scottish

Other spellings of the surname include McDonald, McDonnell, Macdonald, and McDonnell.

In what part of the globe is the McDonald last name prevalent?

Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand are the countries where the McDonald surname is most prevalent, according to the WorldNames Public Profiler. Grenada has the highest density of McDonald surname bearers, followed by Jamaica, Scotland, the Bahamas, and Australia, according to the Forebears surname distribution map. Inverness-shire was where the MacDonald surname was most prevalent in Scotland in 1881. It was the eleventh most popular surname in County Carlow, Ireland, in 1901.

Notable individuals with the surname Macdonald:

American singer and songwriter Michael McDonald

Freda American dancer and performer Josephine McDonald was also known by her married name, Josephine Baker.

Ramsay MacDonald was the first Prime Minister of the Labour Party in Britain.

Patriot Flora MacDonald was a Jacobite who defended Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden.

John A. Macdonald was Canada's first prime minister. Resources for MacDonald genealogy under the surname MacDonald USA

a national organisation made up of around 4,000 families who can trace their ancestry to a certain Clann Domhnaill branch.

Forum for McDonald Family Genealogy

Visit our well-liked genealogy forum for the McDonald surname to connect with other researchers studying your ancestors or to submit your own research question.

The McDonald Family DNA Project

About 2,000 MacDonalds (spellings McDaniel, McDanold, and so on) who are interested in tracing their Scottish or Irish ancestors via DNA and genealogical research are participating in this Y-DNA initiative.

The Macdonald Genealogy on FamilySearch

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides the free FamilySearch website, where you may see over 8.2 million results for the McDonald surname and its variants, including digitised documents, database entries, and online family trees.

McDonald family mailing lists and last name

For anyone researching the McDonald surname, RootsWeb offers a number of free mailing lists.

MACDONALD Family History & Genealogy at DistantCousin.com

Links to free genealogical databases and databases with the last name McDonald.

McDonald Family Tree and Genealogy Page

Visit the Genealogy Today website to see links to history and genealogy data for people with the McDonald surname.

Trying to figure out what a certain name means? See also "Meanings of first names"

--Is your last name not listed? Add a surname to the "Glossary of Surname Meanings and Origins" by making suggestions.

References: the surname's meaning and genesis

The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, Cottle, Basil. Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1967.

Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges. A surname dictionary. Oxford University Press, New York, 1989.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Patrick Hanks. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.

Edward MacLysaght. Irish last names. Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1989.

Elsdon C. Smith, "American Surnames" Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1997.