MacLeod

This article is about the surname. For other uses, see MacLeod (disambiguation).

MacLeod
Pronunciation/məˈklaʊd/ mə-KLOWD
GenderUnisex
Origin
Language(s)
Word/name
Other names
Variant form(s)Macleod, McLeod, M‘Leod, MacLot, McCloud, MacCleod, McCleod
A photograph of Mrs MacLeod who was president of the Australasian WCTU in 1922
Mrs MacLeod was president of the Australasian WCTU in 1922

MacLeod, McLeod and Macleod (/məˈklaʊd/ mə-KLOWD)[1] are surnames in the English language. The names are anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic MacLeòid, meaning "son of Leòd", derived from the Old Norse Liótr ("ugly").[2][3][4]

One of the earliest occurrences of the surname is of Gillandres MacLeod, in 1227.[2] There are two recognised Scottish clans with the surname: Clan MacLeod of Harris and Skye, and Clan MacLeod of Lewis and Raasay. The earliest record of these two families, using a form of the surname MacLeod, occurs in the mid 14th century.

There are also documented cases of Scottish missionaries in Canada using McLeod as an Anglicisation of the indigenous Cree language name Mahkiyoc (meaning "the big one"), which accounts for its occurrence amongst Canadian people of Cree heritage.[5]

  1. ^ Macleod, Dictionary.com, retrieved 6 December 2010 which cited: Dictionary.com Unabridged, Random House
  2. ^ a b Reaney, Percy Hilde; Wilson, Richard Middlewood (2006), A Dictionary of English Surnames (3rd ed.), London: Routledge, p. 2054, ISBN 0-203-99355-1
  3. ^ Black, George Fraser (1946), The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History, New York: New York Public Library, pp. 538, 933
  4. ^ "Mcleod Name Meaning & Mcleod Family History at Ancestry.co.uk®". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  5. ^ McLead, Neal (2000). "Plains Cree Identity: Borderlands, Ambiguous Genealogies and Narrative Irony" (PDF). The Canadian Journal of Native Studies. 20 (2): 437–454. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2013.