How can u tell if a last name is Scottish, Irish or, scotch-Irish?

For example McDougall, should the underlined c, capital D and, the two L's, tell me anything about the names origin

How can u tell if a last name is Scottish, Irish or, scotch-Irish?
Hi





You may deduce deduce the origine of some names by using the specific prefixes or suffixes used for clanic or aristocratic names OR used to describe the origin of someone from a given town or village.





For scottish and irish names you have the following helpers:


- Mc = Mac means "son of" in gaelic, for example mac donald, mac donagall... Somatimes it's written "Mag"


- o': means ancestor in gaelic, for example o'connor ...


furhter, you may find names begining with Fitz (Fitzgerald) meaning "son of" also.





You also may find the gaelic roots for a name, or town names in the name: I found this site that may help you: http://www.daire.org/names/index.html





These principles are true for other nation:


In france aristocratic / origin name are prefixed with De or Du: for example De Mormon, Du Ch锚ne....


In poland or russia, names are often ended by "ski" meaning "from" or showing an aristocratic root: Dabrowski, Szczepanski ...





Hope it helps :)
Reply:As I am Irish, I would say its Scottish,
Reply:Hey,





The problem with trying to figure out where the name came from is that the scottish and irish have intermingled for a long time. There was a time when you could have said that the Mc and not Mac was a way of placing a name but it is much more difficult now. The best way to find out where your name came from is by speaking to a someone in your family who has studied the geneology for sure. You'll find that there is an ancestral seat for Clan Dougall, but that doesn't really mean that your family came from that area.
Reply:If it is Scottish you can get it authenticated by a clan historian or an official coat of arms dealer.
Reply:You should never call a scottish person scotch,


scotch is a drink!
Reply:Well, as far as I know ... if the sure name is something like O'Connel then it must be Irish. If the surname is something like McDougall then it might be Scottish or it might also be an Irish. You see there are lots of people in Ireland called with Scottish like surnames. Apparently there might an influence of Scottish origins in Northern Ireland.
Reply:This is not descript and i think they want u to pay but its all i could find... http://www.last-names.net/letter.asp?s=M