A surname of McDonald is from the Gaelic name of Mac Dhomhnuill. This originally came from the personal name of Domhnall. It means world ruler and McDonald refers to son of Donald.

Additional spellings for McDonald are MacDonald, McDonnell, McDonaill and McDonall.

Mostly in the northern region of English is where the families with the McDonald surname live. The English counties are Lancashire and Yorkshire.

McDonald is one of the most common surnames in all of Scotland. Areas like Inverness-shire and Lanarkshire counties have the highest population.

The states of Massachusetts, Illinois, California, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana and Washington have higher percentages of people with the McDonald surname.


Famous: John MacDonald (15th century Scottish ruler), Eugene F. McDonald (founder of Zenith Radio), John Alexander MacDonald (19th century prime minister of Canada), Pirie MacDonald (portrait photographer), Marie McDonald (actress), Ranald MacDonald (19th century Scottish educator in Japan), Walt McDonald (poet), Ian McDonald (science fiction writer from Northern Ireland), Ron McDonald (footballer of England) and Scott McDonald (footballer from Australia).