The name McDonald,
or the variation McDaniel,
is claimed to be of Irish or
Scottish origin and is
composed of the prefix
Mac (shortened to Mc),
meaning “son of” and the
Christian name of Daniel,
Donall or Donell. Both
versions – McDonald and
McDaniel – are found in
the Holden and Talley
ancestry. Donell or
Donall, a baptismal name
was popular in both
Ireland and Scotland in
ancient times. The Gaelic
name Donald or Donnel and the English name
Daniel all mean the same thing to Gaelic people.
The tradition is that the family is descended
from one Muireadach or Colla da Crioch, who was
living in Ireland in the latter part of the third
century A.D. The direct line of this descent cannot
be traced.
The McDonald or McDaniel Celtic family
descends from Somerled, son of Gillebride, through74
McDonald or
McDaniel
Clan Badge
“By sea or by land”
his son Ranald and his
grandson Dhomhnuill (or
Donald) of Islay.
Somerled is described
as “a well tempered man,
in body shapely, of a fair
and piercing eye, of
middle stature and quick
discernment.” He
traveled “over the sea to
Skye,” where the Scottish
welcomed him as Lord of
the Isles. Somerled
expelled the Norsemen
from the Western Isles in
the 12th century and
became Regulus of the
Isles (king of the isles).
There are still people in Scotland who retain the McDaniel, furthermore there are many people who were Mac-Donald and changed their surnames to Mcdonald or McDonald and visa-versa for their own reasons...in-addition to this the recording of surnames have been in many cases written as they assumed.
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