Maclean or MacLean

[JSFMACLJR]

Whether MacLean is spelled with an upper-case L or lower case; whether it is Mc or Mac--it matters not! All spellings are correct. The clan is Highland and Western Isles. My ancestors from Mull spelled the name McLean. Two generations after emigration, one branch ( that of my g-grandfather ) had changed the spelling to MacLean.

The Chief, BTW, uses a lower case L! So do all the chieftains, I believe. I am happy, thank you very much, with the capital L.

[T-Bone]

That's what I thought. I figured that it had much to do with emmigration.

[JSFMACLJR]

Jo Currie, in her short book, “MacLeans: A Biographical Dictionary of Mull People”, explains what I have said: spelling doesn’t matter! The following quotation, while mentioning specifically the Maclaines of Lochbuie, shows that all spellings of the great surname are correct.

"Since most records were entered by a schoolmaster, session clerk, or some such neutral scribe, it was his spelling, and not that of the subject which was used. Maclean can fluctuate between half a dozen spellings in the history of one family. Generally speaking, the spelling Maclaine or McLaine is associated with the Lochbuy estate, and when found in other areas often suggests a refugee from Lochbuy lands. Certain families in the early 19th century insisted on this spelling, but after 1850 gave it up and reverted to mcLean, which increasingly became MacLean, as all kinds of pedantic nonsense was written about the correctness of Mc or Mac. Their apostasy reflects the diminishing importance of the family of Lochbuy, or a wish for simplicity. People who emigrated in the 18th century with the name McLane, McLaine or Maclaine do not have to seek Lochbuy explanations. There would then be no significance in the spelling, for even the Maclaines of Lochbuy spelt their name in nine different ways. But those emigrating between 1800 and 1850 whith these spellings might have good reason to suppose that they came from Torosay parish and should be very wary if they hear a headless horseman galloping by (an intimation that there would be a Lochbuy death).

Every Maclean today, regardless of the spelling of the name today, should entertain all possible spellings in the past."

[xman]

Of the extant signatures, Shakespeare never signed his own name the same way twice.

It was much the same with Christopher Marlowe, in fact he even wrote his name as Marley a few times. This was just how it was and some of that persists only now we have become more rigid about maintaining a specific variation of some spelling while other branches of the same family will rigidly maintain a different spelling.

[Graham A. Robieson]

Hello & Greetings,

Mac (Son of) was applied to the first name e.g. Donald has a son Duncan, so Duncan would be named MacDonald - SonofDonald or lowland version Donaldson, (Yes I am aware of Highland Clans with son at the end of there names, however I am talking origins.) history of Mac/son etc. is the cross between Celtic Gaelic Language and Viking Norse Language, Vikings introduced the term son at the end of a surname/there fathers first name etc. e.g. Donaldson, Donaldsson, Donaldsen, Donaldssen, just like Ericson, Ericsson, Ericsen, Ericssen, Eriksen, Erikssen etc. Vikings from southern Denmark, northern Germany, and Scandanavia etc even to this day still use names like that, son came with the Anglo-Saxons, and often referred to as lowland names, Highland Gaelic applied Mac, but also for e.g. MacLeod a viking name with Gaelic applied meaning (SonoftheKing), which Vikings settled and a mixture of culture and language showed viking intergration, cause vikings settled in Ireland aswell, that's how Dublin exists and places like Swansea in Wales (Sven Sea/Sven's Sea) etc.

Mac was also shortened to make Mc, M. but with the small c placed at the top of the M and perhaps with a small dot underneath, short hand of the name and not all highlanders were able to write their names, how the name is spelt doesn't matter cause people who couldn't write their name, left it up to those who could write and so comes with many versions of e.g. MacLeod, MacCloud, McCloud, MacLoude, McLoude etc. MacLeod, Macleod, however you choose to write it, it still sounds the same, and I know only those who write there surnames with the captial letter here in Scotland, also MacLean, Maclean to refer to MacLean with the captial L applied as lowland is incorrect if it were it would have been written as Leanson, Leansson, Laineson, Lainesson, Lainson, Lainsson etc.

Highland Gaelic, Lowland Scots, Viking Norse, all have an effect on the spelling and pronoucation of surnames in Scotland. Every where else, English is applied to best represent the sounding of the name, that's how MacLeod ended up being spelt as MacCloud, of which is still carried around to this day e.g. Kevin McCloud (presenter for the Channel4s Grand Designs programme) and many other versions etc.

Here's a link:

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv...kevin-mccloud/


Another note: in my family history, my Great-Great Grand Father's middle name was McFarlane with the small c placed further up at the top of the M, with the captial F, that was before the statutory recording of births, deaths and marriages came in to effect during the 1850s.
At present I am still researching my family tree, and have made many interesting discoveries and I still have many more to make.


I hope this info sheds some more light on the subject,


All the best,


Graham.

[T-Bone]

So it's not accurate, T-Bone, to say that all other "Mac" clan names use an upper case letter following: Macgregor is often found as MacGregor, Macgillivray (and McGillivray) more often than MacGillivray, Mackenzie more often than MacKenzie, Maclachlan more often than MacLachlan, for example.

In Scotland, that is. I understand that Ellis Island contributed a lot to name-change in the US.

My mistake. I have been researching the Macleans so much, all others went by my mental wayside. Sorry for the generalization.
T

[Lyle1]

Literacy is a rather recent development. As some one mentioned in an earlier post, the spelling used in historical records most likely reflects what the scribe thought was appropriate; the named person probably did not even know how to spell his own name, be he peasant or noble. Add to that the fact that most records were recorded in Latin, not Celtic, and you have even more confusion. I see lots of examples in my own family tree where spelling was not consistent from generation to generation or even among siblings of the same generation. This is not unique to the Scots, I see it in all of my branches, though the Germans seem to be the most consistent group, except in the case of some Italian ancestors who settled in Germany after the Thirty Years War. Italian names really confused the Germans.

[Riverkilt]

My three great grandfather John Gray Macdonald was a literate man. He often translated letters from home into Gaelic for his neighbors then wrote their letter back home in Gaelic for them.

If officials spelled his name wrong, he still didn't change it. He knew the "correct" spelling and passed that on to his son and grandson who, in turn, passed it on down.

Yes, official records are often spelled incorrectly - but literate families didn't adopt the errors, they preserved what they knew to be correct - whatever that was to them.

[MacBean]

I understand that Ellis Island contributed a lot to name-change in the US.[/QUOTE]

It is certainly true that immigration records from any age struggled with how to spell names. It is my impression that Scottish immigrants, or the more common "Scotch-Irish", came to this land far before Ellis Island as an immigrant center existed. My own ancestors came in the mid-1700's and that was much later than the other Scottish families they married into.

The more interesting question about Maclean is when did it become Lean, and even perhaps Lane and how? Lane is only a theory of mine, that this is Anglicized (Anglicised) version of the Scottish pronunication of Maclean. If it follows the same route as Bean, Bain, Macbean, McBain, etc., then the earlier parish spellings tended to be __ean but pronounced __ain. The earlier Anglicizations became Lean, but later, when Scots may have changed the spelling to Maclane to reflect the pronunciation, the Anglicization became Lane. Just guessing, but an interesting question to a small few.

[ThistleDown]

It is certainly true that immigration records from any age struggled with how to spell names. It is my impression that Scottish immigrants, or the more common "Scotch-Irish", came to this land far before Ellis Island as an immigrant center existed. My own ancestors came in the mid-1700's and that was much later than the other Scottish families they married into.

Yes, you are no doubt right, Mark. I was under the impression that America's immigration policy vis-a-vis Ellis Island was much older than it apparently is. We are taught, though, that something around fifty percent of US citizens today can trace their ancestry to Ellis Island; is that untrue?

Perhaps they are the other half of the population and not those descended from earlier Scots and Ulster-Scots

It's interesting that in Scotland there was a considerable wave of immigrants from Poland in the 16/17C, a second wave in the first half of the 20C and a third even more recent. All of the first one merged with natives (who were mostly descendants of incomers themselves) and we don't know much about them today, many of the second following the same course -- and we have yet to see a destination for the third, although we can surmise. The US wasn't the first melting pot.

Sorry to deviate so far from the thread.

Am I hearing you correctly? Are you saying that in America Maclean is pronounced other than mac-clay'-n? That would be wondrous news to me. In Highland Scotland your name is pronounced mac-bay-n and is supported (!) by the spelling: Mac-be-an (your chiefly family spells it 'MacBain', but that came about only after they settled in America). If you listen very closely to Gaelic speakers pronouncing both names you will hear an almost silent 'i' before the n. Play with it. It's good exercise for the tongue : Mac-clay'-n. Mac-bay'-n.

Rex