Talk:MacLeòid

Oldest record of the name

Léot of Brechin's name as it appears in the Book of Deer.

It'd be cool to find a picture of the oldest occurance of the surname. Like an image from a manuscript, or a charter, or something. Here's an image of Léot of Brechin's name, as written in the early 12th century. We'd need to find out specifically what document Gillandres's name was recorded in (if his surname is indeed the earliest form of "MacLeod"); maybe an image of that document could be found on the net, like with the image of Léot's name. --Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 22:18, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

MacLeòid/MhicLeòid/NicLeòid

I've been looking through old edits and see some confusion about the various Gaelic forms of this name. I'm a native Gaelic speaker and, to help any future editors, here's some information about their meaning and spelling. Since this can only be classed as "original research", I'm going to leave it on the Talk page.

The Gaelic word clann literally means "children". It can also be used for "Clan" in Gaelic, although because of the possible confusion with the meaning "children", cinneadh is more commonly used to refer to what is called a "clan" in English. Clann is however always used in Gaelic for one of the Highland Clans when combined with the surname, e.g. Clann 'ic Dhòmhnaill, Clann MhicAmhlaigh (for Clan Donald and Clan MacAulay).

Leòd is the Gaelic name of the founder of Clan MacLeod.

Leòid is the genitive form of this - "of Leod".

Mac means "(a) son".

Mac Leòid literally means "a son of Leod" or "the son of Leod". (Gaelic doesn't use the definite article in the same way as English, and doesn't have an indefinite article.) This can also be written as one word - MacLeòid - and these days usually is in Gaelic when referring to the Clan. "Mac Leòid", written with the space, could possibly be taken to mean "a son of Leòd".

Mic is the plural form of mac, meaning "sons". It's also the genitive singular of mac, meaning "of the son".

Mhic is the lenited form of mic, which is used in certain grammatical contexts. When it's used with "Clann", it's most likely to be the genitive singular, although it's confusing because the plural form is the same.

MhicLeòid therefore means "of the son of Leod", and so Clann MhicLeòid, Gaelic for "(the) Clan MacLeod", literally means "the children of the son of Leod".

'icLeòid is an abbreviated form which is often used with Clann, e.g. Clann 'icLeòid (or Clann 'ic Leòid with a space). This is true for other Clans as well, e.g. Clann 'ic Neacail, the Clan Nicholson or MacNeacail.

Nic is related to the word Nighean, meaning "daughter", and means "daughter of". It never takes an "h", since there is no "nh" combination in modern Scottish Gaelic spelling. It might be an abbreviation of Nighean 'ic/mhic, which would mean "the daughter of the son of".

NicLeòid would be used for a MacLeod woman in Gaelic, e.g. Sìne NicLeòid (for Jean MacLeod).

Finally, "Macleod" with a lower case letter l tends to be used more by Lewis people, with the "MacLeod" form being used in other areas. There is some overlap though.

Much of what I've written above will also apply to the Gaelic forms of the surnames of the other Clans. Cailean99 (talk) 15:49, 8 January 2023 (UTC)