Neil "Neil" is a reduced form of the surname "McNeil" (from the Gaelic "Mac Néill", "son of "Niall""), or variant form the surname of Neill (from the Irish "Ó Néill" or the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Néill", meaning "descendant of "Niall"" and "son of "Niall"". The name passed from Ireland to Scotland where it had the "Mc/Mac" prefix. Some Scottish McNeill's returned to Ireland in the 14th century and are associated with "MacNeill", "MacGreal", "MacReill", and "Mag Reil" surnames. The Manx version of the name is "Kneal" (1598), "Kneale" (1655), or "Kneel" (1636). It evolved from McNelle (1408) and MacNeyll (1430) becoming
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