Macinnes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Scottish surname of Gaelic origin, borne by families descended from a man called Angus
2. A family name of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning son of Angus, carried by many people across Scotland and beyond
3. A patronymic surname from Scotland, derived from Gaelic and signifying descent from a person named Angus

Etymology: "MacInnes" is a Scottish surname, and its first half tells you how it was built: "Mac" is the Gaelic word for "son," the same element found in "MacDonald" and "MacLeod." Surnames like this were among the earliest hereditary family names in the Highlands and Islands, where a man was often identified by his father's name. The second part is most likely a form of "Angus" (Gaelic "Aonghas"), so the name began as a way of saying "son of Angus." The exact Gaelic form behind the second element is less settled. The name appears in several spellings, including MacInnes, MacInnis, and MacInnish, and genealogists disagree about which Gaelic personal name each branch descends from. Some families are connected with Argyll, others with the Lochaber area, and the surname is also found among Scottish emigrants in Canada and elsewhere. Because records from the period are patchy, the family's origins can only be traced in outline, and the spelling variants mostly reflect how clerks wrote down a sound they heard.