Macdonell

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Scottish family name of Gaelic origin, borne by people descended from the clan associated with the Glengarry area
2. A surname of Scottish Gaelic origin, carried by many families with ancestral ties to the Highlands
3. Scottish Highland clan surname derived from Gaelic roots, used as a family name across Scotland and beyond

Etymology: "Mac" is Gaelic for "son of," and Macdonell comes from "Mac Dhòmhnaill," meaning "son of Donald." The name is one of the many Scottish and Irish surnames built this way, and in Scotland it belongs to a major Highland clan, the MacDonells of Glengarry, whose lands lay in the Great Glen and the western Highlands. The spelling "MacDonnell" is an equally old variant, and the clan's branches have long used both forms. The first element, Donald, is a Gaelic personal name, Domhnall, that is usually traced to an early Celtic compound meaning roughly "world ruler." Its elements are a word for "world" and one for "ruler," so the given name that anchors the surname carries a grand meaning that most of its bearers never think about. Because so many families took their surnames from a famous Donald, "Macdonell" marks descent from one ancestor among many, rather than from any single famous person.