Macdougal

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Scottish Highland family name of Gaelic origin ; a short street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City
2. A surname of Scottish Gaelic origin carried by many families ; a thoroughfare running through Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan, New York
3. A Gaelic-derived Scottish surname borne by people across the world ; the name of a street in Greenwich Village, in New York City's Manhattan borough

Etymology: "Dark stranger" is the literal sense of this name. It comes from the Gaelic "Mac Dubhghaill," meaning "son of Dubhghall." The personal name combines "dubh," meaning dark, and "gall," meaning foreigner. In medieval Scotland and Ireland, "gall" was often applied to Norse newcomers, so the name likely began as a nickname for a man with dark hair or appearance who was seen as a foreigner. The name became closely tied to the Clan MacDougall of Lorn, a powerful Highland family on the west coast of Scotland. Its bearers later spread across the English-speaking world, and the surname now appears in several spellings, including MacDougal and McDougall. In New York, the spelling is best known from MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. It is named after Alexander McDougall, a merchant and Sons of Liberty leader who became a Continental Army general during the American Revolution.