M a c  B R I D E
 
Irish and Scottish: see McBride.

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                                    M a c   K I N N E Y
 
Scottish and northern Irish: see McKinney.
Anglicized for of Gaelic of Gaelic Mac Cionaodha or Mac Cionaoith 'son of Coinaodh'. name probably composed the elements cion 'respect', 'affection' + Aodh, a Gaelic personal name, originally the name of the Celtic god of fire.
Personal name probably means 'beloved of Aodh.
Northern Irish: form of Gaelic Mac Coinnigh 'son of Coinneach', an Old Irish name equivalent to Scottish Kenneth. Comapre Kenny.

                                             M A G E E
 
Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha (see McGee).
Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha 'son of Aodh' (see McCoy)

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​                                                   M A I T L A N D

Scottish and English: of uncertain origin, possibly a nickname for an ungracious individual, from Anglo-Norman French maltalent, mautalent ‘bad temper’ (Late Latin malum ‘bad’ + talentum ‘inclination’, ‘disposition’). However, there is a place called Mautalant in Pontorson, France, which was named for its unproductive soil, and this may well be a partial source of the surname, particularly in Scotland where many historical examples of the name are written with the preposition de. The present spelling is the result of a contracted pronunciation and folk etymological identification with the common topographic element land.

                                                 M A R G U A R T

Historically, surnames evolved as a way to sort people into groups - by occupation, place of origin, clan affiliation, patronage, parentage, adoption, and even physical characteristics (like red hair). Many of the modern surnames in the dictionary can be traced back to Britain and Ireland.

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                                        M A R S H A L L
 
A name of office -- master of the horse, anciently, one who had command of all persons not above princes.  Teutonic, Marschalk; French, Mareschal.

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                                            M A R T I N
 
This name may be derived from the Latin martius, warlike, from Mars, the God of War.  In the Gaelic, mor is great, and duin, a man.  Morduin, a chief, a warrior.

                                          M A T H E R S
 
English: patronymic from Mather.
name for mower or reaper of grass or hay, Compare mead, Mower.
probably a reletively late developement of Madder (see Mader).

                                  M A T T H E W (S)
 
(origin Hebrew) The gift of the Lord.

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                                         M c B R I D E
 
The son of Bride.
See Bride.
Gaelic.  From Brighid, a hostage, pledge, or security.  The son of Bridget.  Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel, ih his glossary, defines Brighid "fiery dart," and that it was the name of the Muse who was believed to preside over poetry, in pagan times, in Ireland.  Breochuidh, a term given to those virgins who kept the perpetual fire of Beil or Belus among the Druids and ancient celts.
Irish (mainly County Donegal) and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Brighde, from earlier Mac Giolla Bhrighde (Irish), Mac Gille Brighde (sCottish) 'son of the servant of (saint) Brighid'.  Compare Kilbride.
Kilbride
Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Brighde (Irish) or Mac Gille Brighde (scottish) 'son of the servant of (Saint) Brigit', more often Anglicized as McBride.  The name Brighid (modern Brigit) means 'exalted'.  Brighid was probably orignally a pagan fire goddess, many of whose attributes became attached to the historical figure of St. Brigit of Kildare (452-523), founder of the first Irish convent.
Scottish: name from any of the various places with this name, form Gaelic cill Brighde 'church of St. Brigit' (cill being from Latin cella'room', 'cell').

                                  M c C A N D L E S S
 
Northern Irish: Anglicized form of gaelic Mac Cuindis 'son of Cuindleas', an eraly personal name of uncertain origin.

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                                    M c C A R T H E Y
 
(sometimes spelled without E - as in McCarthy)
 
The son of Carrth ach, an Irish chieftain, who lived in the eleventh century.

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                                 M c C L E N A H A N

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Irish (mainly counties Derry and Antrim): form of Gaelic Mac Leanachain 'son of Leanachan', name derived from leanach, which MacLysaght translates as 'possessing mantles' (from leann 'mantle', 'cloak'.
Scottish: variant of McClanahan.
Scottish and Irish: Anglicicized form of gaelic Mac Gille Onchon 'son of the servant of (Saint) Onchu, an Old Irish personal name perhaps meaning 'mighty hound'.  St. Onchu was a 6th-century Irish pilgrim and collestor of holy relics. See also McClenhan.

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                                    M c C O R M A C K
 
Scottish and Irish: variant of McCormick.
Scottish and Irish: form of gaelic Mac Cormaic 'son of Cormac', a personal name composed of the elements corb 'raven' + mac 'son'.

                                           M c C U N E
 
Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eoghain (see McEwen).
Gaelis 'son of Eoghan', possibly derived from eo 'yew', meaning 'born of yew'.  Latinized as Eugenius (see Eugene) and regarded as a Gaelic form of John.
Anglicized form of Mac Eathain 'son of Eathan', Scottish Gaelic form of Latin Johannes (see John). John was taken into Irish as Eoin at first; Sean is a later form. In later Irish, as in the surnames, the personal names Eoghan and Eoin were often confused.

                                                      M c C U R D Y

             Scottish and Irish (County Antrim): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac

           Mhuircheartaigh, a patronymic from Muircheartach, a personal name

           composed of the elements muir ‘sea’ + ceartach ‘ruler’, hence ‘skilled

           seaman’. Compare Moriarty.

                                        M c D O W E L L
 
(Origin Gaelic) The son of Dowell or Dougall, the dark stranger.  From dhu, black, and gall, a native of the low country of Scotland; any one ignorant of the Gaelic language; a foreigner, a stranger.  The same as McDougall.

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                                       M c F A R L A N D
 
The son of Pharlan, or Parthlan, the Gaelic for Bartholomew.  Malcom McFarlane, descended from Alwyn, Earl of Lennox, founder of the clan McFarlane, lived about 1344, in the reign of Malcom IV., King of Scotland.  Tradition gives the following fabulous origin of the name.  A nephew of one of the old earls of Lennox, having killed, in a quarrel, his uncle's cook, was obligated to flee the country.  Returning after many years, he built a castle upon an island above Inversnaid, in the Highlands, where he, and the island after him, received him, received the appellation of Farland.  Hence McFarland, the son of him who came from the Far-land.

                                            M c G A R E Y
 
Scottish: variant of McGarry.
Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of gaelic Mac Fhearadhaigh 'son of Fhearadhach', a personal name meaning 'manly', 'brave' (from fear 'man').

                                                     M c I N T I R E

                                               Scottish: variant of McIntyre.

​                                                   M c I N T Y R E

         Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an tSaoir ‘son of the craftsman’.

                                                       Compare Irish McAteer.

                                           M c L A R E N
 
Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of gaelic Mac Labh rainn 'son of Labhrann', Gaelic form of the personal name Lawrence.

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                                             M c N E E S
 
Irish: variant spelling of McNeese.
Irish: Anglicized form of gaelic Mac Naois, a patronymic from a shortened form of the personal name Aonghus (see Angus).

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                                                  M c P H E R S O N
 
The son of Pherson.  Pherson is the son of Pfarrer, German, a parson, and that from Pfarre, a parish, a benefit, or living.  Pfarre is derived from the Gaelic Faire, a watcher, to watch, an overseer, Episcopus.

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                                              M I C K L E
 
From the Saxon Muchel; Scottish, Muckle.

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                                                M I L E S
 
English (of Norman origin): via Old French from the Germanic personal name Milo, introduced to England by Normans as Miles (oblique case Milon).  During the Middle Ages name sometimes appears in the Latinized form Milo (genitive Milonis), although normal Middle English form was Mile.
mnedevil personal name Mihel, an Old French contracted from Michael.
occupational for servant or retainer, from Latin miles 'soldier'.
Irish (county Mayo): form of Gaelic 'O Maolmhuire, Myles used as the English equivalent of the Gaelic personal name Maol Muire (see Mullery).
Jewish: unexplained.
Dutch: variant of Miels, a variant of Miele.

                                               M I L L E R
 
One who attends a grist-mill.  Meillear, Gaelic, having large lips; malair, Gaelic, a merchant; maillor, gaelic, from maille, armor, and fear, a man -- a man in armor, having a coat of mail, a soldier.

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                                      M O O R E H E A D
 
Northern Irish (eastern Ulster): variant of Muirhead.
Scottish: name from places in southern Scotland, northern Middle English muir 'moor' + heid 'head', end.

                                                           M O R E Y

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha (see Moore). English (of Norman origin): from the Old French personal name Mory, a short form of Amaury (see Emery).

                                            M O R R O W
 
Irish: shortened Anglicized form of gaelic Mac Murchadha (see McMorrow.)
form of gaelic Mac Murchadha, from Murchadh 'sea warrior', from muir 'sea' + cath 'battle'.  in Leinster as McMurrough and in Ulster as Murphy.
form of gaelic Mac Muireadhaigh (see McMurray).

                                               M O S S
 
English and Welsh: Middle English vernacular form of the Biblical name Moses.
English and Scottish: someone who lived by a pet bog, Middle -Old English mos, later came to denote class of plants charastistic of a peat-bog habitat, under the influence of the realted Old Norse word mosi.)
Americanized form of Moses.
Irish (Ulster): part translation of Gaelic 'O Maolmhona 'decendant of Maolmhona',  composed elements maol 'servant', 'tonsured one', 'devotee' + a second element which was assumed to be m'oin (genetive m'ona) 'moorland', 'peat bog'.

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                                           M U R R A Y
 
(Origin De Moravia) Some deduce this family from a warlike people called the Moravii, who came from Germany into Scotland, and affixed their own nomenclature to that district now called the shire of Moray.  The root of the name is the same whether Moravian or Gaelic, and signifies the great water, from mor, great, and an or av, water.

                                              M U S I C
 
Serbian and Croatian (Musi'c): patronymic from the personal name Musa, a pet form of the Bibilical name Mojsije (see Moses).
Slovenian (Mu'si'c): patronymic from the nickname Muha, or possibly a topographic name from mu'si'c, a dailect word for foxtail grass (genus Setaria).

  Anatomy  of  the  " M " Surnames

Origin - Meanings of Surnames beginning with " M "

McBride - Bumpus Genealogy