Scots-Irish

[Casey]

The Ulster Scots settled in Ontario, here in Canada, too. My mother was an Aikens (Gordon).

[djweso]

Mc and Mac are both Scots prefixes, there is a myth that one is Scots and one is Irish -Nope Both are Scots it simply depended on how the registrar spells it

I had no idea. Thanks. All of my genealogy information is second hand or hearsay at this point. (ie what my mother told me). Its really great to learn all of this.

[Moosehead]

djweso,
my previous:

Not quite so...both exist in "real" Irish surnames as well. As you know, it simply means "son of", whereas O' is "grandson of".

[KiltedKnight]

I have a good friend by the name of O'Brien who is originally from the Philly area of Pennsylvania. In our circle of friends came another fellow by the name of Brien, (These are last names), and according to the both of them they claim that since Mr. Brien had lost the 'O' from his name somewhere along the away that this was because someone in his family had been a horse thief. Now I don't know what to believe, anyone know the truth?

Chris.

[macwilkin]

I have a good friend by the name of O'Brien who is originally from the Philly area of Pennsylvania. In our circle of friends came another fellow by the name of Brien, (These are last names), and according to the both of them they claim that since Mr. Brien had lost the 'O' from his name somewhere along the away that this was because someone in his family had been a horse thief. Now I don't know what to believe, anyone know the truth?

Chris.

More likely it was changed so it wouldn't look and sound so "Irish", either by his relative, or by the immigration official.

Cheers,

Todd

[Moosehead]

Many Irish dumped the O' or Mc because for awhile irish names were basically illegal, so many were anglicised. The thought that O' was "taken" away is nonsense. By the way, I'm an O'Brien descendant myself.

[KiltedKnight]

These explanations make more sense than the horse thief story...

[GlassMan]

Mc and Mac are both Scots prefixes, there is a myth that one is Scots and one is Irish -Nope Both are Scots it simply depended on how the registrar spells it

I went to brunch after Church today with some friends and while waiting for a table a man came up to me and began a conversation over my kilt. He was a MacDuff and he of course asked my name. Well I'm a McKee and he insisted that only Mac's were Scottish, I must be Irish instead and nothing I said to him could disabbuse him of this belief.

[Phil]

As a previous post has said Mc or Mac are simply different spellings of the same thing and has nothing to do with being Irish. The benefits of education allow us to be picky about spelling nowadays but it is only in very recent times that most people had sufficient education to do so. Before that people said their name the way it sounded and relied on an official at immigration or in church records to interpret that sound in a spelt name.
Any Mc or Mac names in Ireland belong to people who moved there from Scotland for many reasons. Both countries are only separated by about 20 miles of sea and there would have been constant travel between them long before the plantation of Ulster. Also clans such as the MacDonalds in Scotland share the same ancestry as the O'Donnells who were a prominent family in North Antrim, just a different prefix in a different country.

[Raptor]

I'll stick in a comment from my wife, as she's not a member in her own right:
My wife is a Johnston, & fiercely proud of the fact. She wears the tartan & clan regalia with pride, & woe betide anyone who belittles either! However, when asked if she's Scottish, she replies in the following order: "I'm an Ulsterwoman, then I'm an Irishwoman, then I'm of Scots descent". Her family migrated to Ireland during "the 42", & her belief is that 400 years in Ireland makes her Irish. For what it's worth, her lot are outside the normal migration pattern, as she's a Caskabene (sp?) Johnston rather than an Annandale, thus a highlander.