Maclean or MacLean

[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