Corrie (surname) derived from the Gaelic "coire", meaning "cauldron", which was used in place names to describe a circular valley on the side of a mountain. Another origin of the surname is from a variation of the surnames "Corry" and "McCorry", which are common in the north of Ireland. These particular surnames are derived from the Irish "Mac Gothraidh", meaning "son of "Gothradh"". In Ireland, the surname is rare, although it is found in numbers in Belfast and Derry. The surname, when found in Ireland, can originate as either the northern Irish patronym, or from any of the Scottish toponyms. The name
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