A Scottish and Irish surname, McClelland the Gaelic term ‘fillan’ referred to a wolf and the ‘mc’ meant the son of the servant of Fillan. Spelling variations of McClelland include McLellan, MacLelland, Clelland, MacClelland, MacLellan and McClellan. The earliest McClellands in Scotland were in Galloway and Kirkcudbrightshire. Within England the McClelland families lived in Durham, Lancashire and Cheshire counties. Within the United States the McClelland families lived primarily in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Washington, California and Indiana. Famous: James McClelland (professional footballer from Scotland), Alyssa McClelland (actress from Australia), Matthew McClelland (awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War), Thomas A. McClelland (killed at Pearl Harbor and the ship USS McClelland named for him), James M. McClelland (awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War) and John Gordon McClelland (Canadian book publisher).