What is the meaning or the origin of "O′" in front of Irish Surnames o

Question:I have noticed that "O" and "Mac" or "Mc" are separately related to Ireland or Scotland. I think that an original Irish name cannot have a" Mac"/"Mc "in front.On the other side,an original Scottish name cannot begin with"O".Is it real or just my appreciation?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have noticed that "O" and "Mac" or "Mc" are separately related to Ireland or Scotland. I think that an original Irish name cannot have a" Mac"/"Mc "in front.On the other side,an original Scottish name cannot begin with"O".Is it real or just my appreciation?

Supposedly, "O" means "son of" and "Mc" Mac" means "grandson of." They've pretty much gone out of use in that manner, however, since surnames started to stay the same from generation to generation. Just like the Welsh "verch" and "ap," meaning "daughter of" and "son of."

Oh, forgot, there's also the "Fitz-" that was used as "son of." FitzGerald, for example. McDonald and O'Donnell are pretty much the same name, since the Irish and Scotch originally came from the same place. For an example of Welsh, try Ystradwal ap Ystrafael. That's an ancestor of mine.

Graytree has got it on the nail give her the 10 she beat me to the keyboard

The O represents of and the Mac, very loosely represents son of.

They both mean the same thing basically son of or from the clan of.

Lots of cultures have a similar thing, in Wales it could be Op some Muslims have Ibn etc etc.

No, you often get Mac or Mc on Irish names .... my great grandfather dropped the Mac on my family name, I don't know why.

Mac means 'son of', and the female form 'daughter of' is 'Nic'. A common Irish name is Macnamara, which very poetically means 'son of the sea'.

O (female form Ni) means 'from', and could be derived from 'a follower of the house of' or 'from the retinue of' a king or local chieftain. A common name for this is O'Brien, which may mean 'a follower of the house of Brian', Brian being Brian Boru, the last High King of Ireland who was killed by Vikings in 1014.

I don't know if an original Scottish name can begin with O, but I don't see why not. Remember too that many of the names you see today are anglicised versions of Irish or Scots Gaelic names, I don't know about Scotland, but in Ireland the Irish versions are still used.

You also come across names that start with Fitz, like Fitzgerald. Someone had this notion that anyone whose name started with Fitz was descended from an illegitimate union, which is nonsense. Fitz is in fact Norman French and means 'son of', and came into Ireland from the late 12th century onwards, with the Normal conquest. Fitzgerald is commonly translated into Irish as Mac an Ghearalt.

Mac, Mc and Fitz mean son of. O means descendant of or grandson of.

Irish and Scottish Mc and Mac are interchangeable. The Scots were originally a tribe from Ireland anyway!

Fitz is the old version of the modern French word "fils", meaning "son".

Just shows that many different cultures thought it would be a good idea to use "son of" as a way of identifying individuals!