Subject: Re: Linguistic history of Mc & Mac in Scotland?
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 95 18:47:07 PST
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From: p_iannone@pop.com (Paul Iannone)
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In article <3mrqo7$b8j@kaiwan.kaiwan.com> schoner@kaiwan.com (Jeff Schoner)
writes:
> In article <199504151215.2788@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU>, thed@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU 
> says...
> >
> >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?
> 
> I beleive the Mac or Mc is a prefix that mean "son".  It's similar to the
Russian 
> "vich" suffix.  It has now outlived it's usefullness, but the names are still
around.

: In article <3mrqo7$b8j@kaiwan.kaiwan.com> schoner@kaiwan.com (Jeff Schoner)
: writes: > In article <199504151215.2788@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU>,
: thed@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU > says... > > > >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? > > I beleive the Mac or Mc is a
: prefix that mean "son".  It's similar to the Russian > "vich" suffix.  It has
: now outlived it's usefullness, but the names are still around.
: 
: Another patronymic: in Welsh `ap' means `son (of)' (from `mab' = `boy' or
: `child' - if I remember correctly). Some anglicised Welsh surnames bear
: traces of this, eg `Pritchard' = `ap Richard', `Price' = `ap Rhys'. (Richard
: isn't a Welsh name, of course, but presumably became sufficiently common in
: Wales to get a Welsh patronymic attached to it.) I suppose `Mac' and `mab'
: could conceivably be related: any Celtic experts out there?


Did anyone mention 'Fitz'? I understand this is appended to names to mean
'bastard son' (fitz is corrupted French, fils, son).
--
