Macdonnells

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of the Scottish and Irish Gaelic clan descended from the Lords of the Isles, a family line that includes the Earls of Antrim
2. People belonging to the Gaelic kinship group known as the Clan Donald, traced to the medieval Lords of the Isles in western Scotland
3. Scottish and Irish families sharing a common Gaelic ancestry, the clan whose lineage runs back to the Somerled dynasty of the Hebrides

Etymology: The name means "son of Domhnall." "Mac" is the Gaelic for "son of," and Domhnall is a personal name from Old Irish "Domnall," usually glossed as "world-ruler," though that meaning is a likely reading rather than a certainty. Gaelic families adopted such patronymics as surnames, so the name records an ancestor rather than a place or trade. The spelling "Macdonnell" with double n is largely associated with the branches in Ireland, especially Antrim, and in Scotland with the Glengarry line, while the wider Clan Donald usually uses "Macdonald." The plural "Macdonnells" refers to members of these families collectively, as in "the Macdonnells of Antrim."