English
The surname McDonald is of Irish and Scottish origin.The surname signifies the 'son of Donald'.The name Donald comes from the Gaelic Domnall and meant originally 'world mighty' or 'world wielder'.The Scottish MacDonalds claim descent from the semi-legendary Irish king,Conn of the Hundred Battles.Coming to historic times,the chiefs of Clan Donald descend from the twelfth-century Somerled,Lord of Argyll,who through his marriage to a daughter of Olave the Red of Norway,and through his own conquests,gained control of the western islands and took the titlle of Regalus of the Isles.The Clan Donald,through conquests,marriages and the absorption of many small families,became the most powerful clan in Scotland and at their height controlled the entire western seaboard and the Isle of Man.The decline of the MacDonalds was in effect the decline of the Gaelic way of life in the Highlands,With the Battle of Culloden in 1746 the clan system was finished and,as a power,so were the MacDonalds.The period that followed,culminating in the Highland Clearances of the nineteenth century,forced many to emigrate to America.The given name is first on record in its Welsh form,Dumnagual,in Roman documents of two thousand years ago.The name was brought to America by Scottish and Irish immigrants.One of the first forefathers to bring this name to America is that of a Duncan Donald,a carpenter,who came to America aboard the Speedwell;he settled in Maryland.This name is the ninety-seventh most common surname in America.