Spellings

McIntosh
MacIntosh
MacKintosh

What do they signify and why the different spellings?

We have all sorts of theories at work. Mc/Mac I believe means son of and people will often tell us one is Irish/Englich/Scottish depending on the spelling.

I have been working in archives and genealogy long enough to see that often these names get their spelling from the census taker, a relative who couldn't spell or from somones recollection and then are carried down through the family.

Cheers, Dayle.

Aye, i've heard the Irish/Scottish thing before but not sure what spelling comes from where or if there was other meanings for it.

I've heard Kerr, Ker and Carr are much the same name - spelt differently....family fallout/individuality?? By the way.

As a student of Scottish history, I can tell you that the Mc/Mac being Irish/Scottish is a myth. There is no difference between the two, Mc can be considered a abbreviation of Mac. Other variations include Mic, Miec etc.

Standardized spellings of names is a very modern phenomenon. When births, marriages, deaths etc were registered the person writing the record was often almost illiterate so you got many, many variations of their 'phonetic' interpretation of a name. Clerics were often the worst offenders. This continued through the many emigrations to places like Ireland, the USA or Australia when the officer registering the new citizen would often incorrectly spell the name.

In many records you will find members of the same family with different spellings of the last name.

In some cases, Buchanan for example, there are literally hundreds of ways it has been spelled. The same is true of almost every other Scottish surname: Montgomery or Montgonerie, Nicolson or Nicholson, McLeod or MacLeod - they are the same name. Researchers have found almost two dozen names that Wm. Shakespeare was known as during his lifetime.

If you are researching your family history you have to be prepared to sift through all the variations to arrive at your destination.

I totally agree with the last post - we have spelling variations going back just one generation! My uncle was Moffat on his bith certificate and Moffet on his marriage certificate, My father was Moffet by mistake too!