McKinley (surname) McKinley (surname) McKinley is a Scottish and Irish surname historically associated with northwestern Ireland's County Donegal, and the over-kingdom of Ulaid in northeastern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. The McKinley are of the ancient Ulaid race and are a branch of its "Red Branch" MacDunleavy (dynasty) royal house of the Dal Fiatach which dominated the kingship of the over-kingdom of Ulaid (original Gaelic language Mac Duinnshléibhe). Etymology for the origins of the surname proposes that the Anglicized surname McKinley, like the surname MacNulty (Gaelic Mac an Ultaigh, trans. "son of the ultonian, ulidian or ulsterman"), arose originally from a Gaelic
Mac and Mc together in print two publications on filing rules, one covering that "word-by-word" convention, and another prepared in 1980 that is "letter-by-letter". A 1998 book attributes the changes to the rules to computer informatics, and notes the Mac/Mc change as its first example. 1982's "Scottish Roots", a guide for family history researchers, warns that older Scottish records do not in fact follow this convention, unlike contemporary telephone directories. A 2001 book of "New York Times" theatre reviews sorts Mc names as if spelled Mac. A 2002 official document for the State of Vermont recommends explicitly no special treatment for Mac and Mc.