Where the McDonald name comes from

McDonald is a spelling variant of MacDonald, from the Scottish Gaelic Mac Dhòmhnaill, meaning son of Donald. The name is a patronym in both the Scottish Gaelic and Irish languages, where it points back to an ancestor with the given name Donald. Dòmhnall itself is built from two Celtic elements, domno meaning world and val meaning might rule. The Gaelic personal name is probably a borrowing from the British Celtic Dyfnwal.

Its cousins in the other Celtic languages include Modern Irish Dónal, Welsh Dyfnwal and Cumbric Dumnagual. The final d in Donald came partly from English speakers misreading the Gaelic sound of the name. In Scotland the surname belongs to Clan Donald, one of the largest clans, whose first MacDonald was Aonghus Mór, son of Domhnall mac Raghnaill, who died around 1293. In Ireland the name is largely from the same root, though it sometimes stands in for MacDonnell.