McDonald surname meaning

McDonald is a Gaelic patronymic: Mac Dhomhnaill, “son of Donald.” Mac and Mc are spelling conventions that preserve the same basic relationship, though family records may prefer one form consistently. Donald is the English form of a Gaelic personal name, and McDonnell can appear as a related but not identical anglicization in Irish and Scottish records. The surname therefore identifies descent from an ancestor named Donald, not a place called Donald or a food business. MacDonald, McDonald, and Macdonald can represent the same family in different documents, but genealogists still need records to connect them. Parent’s name is the secure catalog type.