In the context of
Scottishclans, the various forms of the name refer to one of the largest clans,
Clan Donald. In Ireland the name is largely from this root but may sometimes be a synonym for MacDonnell, which itself may be of distinct Scottish Clan Donald
galloglass or native Irish origins.[3]
Frequency and distribution
In Scottish surname data, no distinction is made between, for instance, "Macdonald" and "MacDonald".[4] According to these data, the following frequency information can be collated:
Frequency data from England of 1891 shows a concentration of families bearing the "Macdonald" surname in
Lancashire and
Yorkshire with a lower frequency in the northernmost counties, but overall widespread distribution throughout the country.[11] "McDonald" shares the same pattern of distribution.[12] In contemporaneous data from the United States, coast-to-coast distribution of both "Macdonald" and "McDonald" appears in 1880.[13][14] Looking back to 1840 in the United States, the prevalence of "McDonald" is far greater than that of "Macdonald", with concentration in the
Ohio-
Pennsylvania-
New York corridor.[15][16]
Flora MacDonald (1722–1790), Jacobite patriot who protected Bonnie Prince Charlie after the 1746 Battle of Culloden
Jacques MacDonald (1765–1840), 1st Duke of Taranto, French military officer and Marshal of the Empire under
Napoleon I (2nd generation French; father was Scottish)
John MacDonald of Garth (1771–1866), Scottish emigrant to Canada, early partner in the North West Company
John Small MacDonald (c. 1791 – 1849), Canadian businessman and provincial politician
Born after 1800
Annie MacDonald (1832–1897), British courtier, Dresser (lady's maid) to Queen Victoria of Great Britain
Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937), Scottish politician, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (son of "Macdonald" father and "Ramsay" mother, registered at birth as "James McDonald Ramsay")
Ranald MacDonald (1834–1894), Scottish-Chinook educator. First man to teach the English language in Japan
^
ab"Surnames in Scotland over the last 140 years". Occasional papers.
General Register Office for Scotland. Archived from
the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2008-02-10. In this new survey of surnames, as in all previous surveys, we have not distinguished between the varying use of capital letters within surnames e.g. MacDonald/Macdonald. However, as in the previous two surveys, each spelling is noted separately in the tables e.g. McDonald/MacDonald.
^
ab%freq = percentage of the sample population sharing a particular surname.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2009-09-08.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link) Note: Quote from GROScotSurnames: "Note that McDonald is shown as more common than MacDonald in 1901, although given the uncertainties surrounding the spelling of these names it would seem wrong to regard this as significant."
This page lists people with the
surnameMacDonald. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.
In the context of
Scottishclans, the various forms of the name refer to one of the largest clans,
Clan Donald. In Ireland the name is largely from this root but may sometimes be a synonym for MacDonnell, which itself may be of distinct Scottish Clan Donald
galloglass or native Irish origins.[3]
Frequency and distribution
In Scottish surname data, no distinction is made between, for instance, "Macdonald" and "MacDonald".[4] According to these data, the following frequency information can be collated:
Frequency data from England of 1891 shows a concentration of families bearing the "Macdonald" surname in
Lancashire and
Yorkshire with a lower frequency in the northernmost counties, but overall widespread distribution throughout the country.[11] "McDonald" shares the same pattern of distribution.[12] In contemporaneous data from the United States, coast-to-coast distribution of both "Macdonald" and "McDonald" appears in 1880.[13][14] Looking back to 1840 in the United States, the prevalence of "McDonald" is far greater than that of "Macdonald", with concentration in the
Ohio-
Pennsylvania-
New York corridor.[15][16]
Flora MacDonald (1722–1790), Jacobite patriot who protected Bonnie Prince Charlie after the 1746 Battle of Culloden
Jacques MacDonald (1765–1840), 1st Duke of Taranto, French military officer and Marshal of the Empire under
Napoleon I (2nd generation French; father was Scottish)
John MacDonald of Garth (1771–1866), Scottish emigrant to Canada, early partner in the North West Company
John Small MacDonald (c. 1791 – 1849), Canadian businessman and provincial politician
Born after 1800
Annie MacDonald (1832–1897), British courtier, Dresser (lady's maid) to Queen Victoria of Great Britain
Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937), Scottish politician, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (son of "Macdonald" father and "Ramsay" mother, registered at birth as "James McDonald Ramsay")
Ranald MacDonald (1834–1894), Scottish-Chinook educator. First man to teach the English language in Japan
^
ab"Surnames in Scotland over the last 140 years". Occasional papers.
General Register Office for Scotland. Archived from
the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2008-02-10. In this new survey of surnames, as in all previous surveys, we have not distinguished between the varying use of capital letters within surnames e.g. MacDonald/Macdonald. However, as in the previous two surveys, each spelling is noted separately in the tables e.g. McDonald/MacDonald.
^
ab%freq = percentage of the sample population sharing a particular surname.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2009-09-08.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link) Note: Quote from GROScotSurnames: "Note that McDonald is shown as more common than MacDonald in 1901, although given the uncertainties surrounding the spelling of these names it would seem wrong to regard this as significant."
This page lists people with the
surnameMacDonald. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.