Scottish genealogy
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Why Do Scottish Surnames Start With Mac?
Why do Scottish surnames start with Mac? It’s a question we are often asked, so in this post, we hope to answer that question and more relating to Scottish surnames. In brief, the prefix Mac comes from the Gaelic word meaning “son of”. It was originally used to identify a person as the son of…
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Scottish Septs: Understanding How Some Surnames Belong to Larger Clans
What Are Scottish Septs? In Scotland, many surnames are connected to larger clans as what are called septs. A sept is a family or group of families who may not share the same surname as the clan chief but historically owed allegiance to the clan. Septs were often smaller branches of a clan, families living…