Trying to refresh some of the discussion arising from the earlier Illegal Mc**** surname debate: Nigel Crowe and Greg Kaighin (22nd September) had an interesting debate on this string about the origin of the Kaighin surname. Greg reports on research suggesting that the Manx name originated from an Irish/Scottish clan that can be traced back to Ulster in the 3rd Century.

This is a fascinating subject - have any of the other Manx surnames been traced to similar origins through Irish and Scottish records?

The different forms of patronimic surnames may have originated from separate waves of migration - e.g Gaelic name origins to a wave of Irish immigration in 3rd-8th centuries, Scandinavian/Irish/Western Islands immigration 9th-13th centuries, and Scottish immigration 13th-14th it seems that all of these were prefixed with Mac by/during this time as heriditary surnames were adopted under Scottish/Norman influence for taxation/land ownership purposes.

During the period of the Stanleys 1405-1660 heriditary surnames were universal and all of the Mac***** names seem to have been transformed to C, K and Q (except for Macyl*** etc) forms by the mid 16th century. These were supplemented by military and administrative immigrants with (largely) Lancastrian surnames.

Post-Restoration the Manx surnames remain recognisably static (apart from spelling variations) and new immigrants appear to retain their original heriditary surnames.

Does anyone else have any genealogical evidence to refute or support this?