McCabe (surname) most common surname, and "MacCabe" was ranked 43,031st. For the 2000 United States Census neither surname ranked among the top 1,000 most common surnames. McCabe (surname) The surnames McCabe and MacCabe are Scottish and Irish surnames. They are Anglicisations of the Gaelic Mac Cába, a patronymic name meaning "son of "Cába"". The nickname or personal name "Cába" is of uncertain origin. The surname can be written in modern Scottish Gaelic as MacCàba and MacCaibe. Patrick Woulfe considered that the surname was possibly derived from a nickname, meaning "a cap", or "hood". Henry Harrison suggested the name was from the Gaelic
McKinley (surname) nickname given the deposed MacDunleavy dynasty royals while exiled in Tirconnell and elsewhere. Being, also, one of Ireland's ancient hereditary medical families, the MacDunleavy (variant English spelling MacDonlevy) were in Tirconnell accorded the high Gaelic status of "ollahm leighis" or the official physicians to the O'Donnell clan in County Donegal and practiced as physicians while exiled in Argyll, Scotland. The nickname was Mac an Leigh. Per this scenario the Gaelic language patronymic forming prefix "Mac" (meaning "descended of") is joined to the Gaelic language "Léigh" meaning leech, but denoting a physician. Leeching (medical) having been for millennia, in Gaelic Ireland