McLaughlin (surname) McLaughlin (surname) M(a)cLaughlin is the most common English form of "Mac Lochlainn", a masculine surname of Irish origin. The feminine form of the surname is "Nic Lochlainn". The literal meaning of the name is "son of "Lochlann"". Note that "Mc" is simply a contraction of "Mac", which is also (albeit rarely) truncated to "M' ". Thus, "MacLaughlin", "McLaughlin" and "M'Laughlin" are the same Anglicism, the latter two merely contractions of the first. The original surname Mac/Nic Lochlainn was borne by a family of Cenél nEógain, a branch of the historic northern O'Neill dynasty, reputedly founded by Niall Noígíallach. This family
Mac and Mc together Mac and Mc together A convention of sorting names with the Scottish and Irish patronymic prefixes Mac and Mc together persists in library science and archival practice. An example is from the Archives at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It is also applied in areas such as voter registration, where Mac and Mc names may be sorted together in a listing. Technically this is a convention in collation. On the other hand, ASCII is a computer standard and its corresponding sorting is gradually replacing this exception to ordinary alphabetisation. Rules once used for filing have been