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 example has been taken as representative of a possible paradigm. A book on filing rules from 1918 gives an example showing Mc and M' treated as abbreviations, i.e. for Mac, and ordered as if in the expanded version; and a similar book from 1922 makes the rule one of a number that apply also to St. (Saint) and Mrs. (Mistress). A 1938 book that is a comparative study of cataloguing in various British libraries regarded Mac + Mc + M' sorting as an example of achieved "standardisation" in alphabetisation. It gave further examples where, it argued, such standardisation would be