Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.ultranet.com!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk!gold.ac.uk!scorpio.gold.ac.uk!peter
From: peter@gold.ac.uk (Peter Christian)
Subject: Re: Linguistic history of Mc & Mac in Scotland?
Message-ID: <D7ApwA.5CD@gold.ac.uk>
Sender: news@gold.ac.uk
Nntp-Posting-Host: scorpio
Organization: Goldsmiths College London
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
References: <199504151215.2788@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 18:55:21 GMT
Lines: 10

Paul Benjamin DWERRYHOUSE (thed@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU) wrote:
: I was wondering if someone might be able to explain the linguistic
: history of Mc and Mac (as the initial parts of surnames) in Scotland?
: Ie, what it means (or maybe, rather, what it meant, if anything), 
: where it came from, if there are any other regions or languages with
: similar name constructs?

It comes from a Celtic root meaning "son", also found in Welsh as "ap".

Peter
