They both just mean “son of” and can be used by anyone of either descent or religion. Similarly, the assertion that Mac names are Protestant while Mc names are Catholic doesn’t have a shred of truth to it. Mc is just an abbreviation of Mac, and both can actually be abbreviated further to the much less common M’.Īs you might guess from this, the myth that a Mac name denotes Scottish heritage while a Mc name denotes Irish heritage is simply not true. The short story is that “Mc” and “Mac” are prefixes that mean “son of.” Early inconsistencies in records are what led to having both Mc and Mac prefixes. David asks: Why is the second “C” capitalized in names like “MacCleod”?
