Is there a McClain one-name-study?

Question

My Grandmother was Mabel McClain. Besides here name I know nothing about her origin. The name sounds Scottish. Or is it Irish?

What does it mean?

Comments

You can go to the Sight houseofnames.com and see their coat of arms and origin of the name McClain

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How trustworthy is this site?

Answer 1

Ronald, I looked under all the spellings I could think of, and I couldn't find a McClain, McLean, MacLean, McLain, MacLain, etc. name study on WikiTree.  Why don't you start one?  As to the name some say that, if it is Gaelic (Irish), it means son of the handsome man, and if it is Scottish, it means son of the servant of (saint) John.

Comments

Vic, thanks for the answer. Is there a source that can be citet for your interpretation of "McClain"?

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Everything I found said that McClain was a variant for McLean/MacLean, so I took the meaning from the entry for MacLean at SheKnows.  You can read much more about the name at The Internet Surname Database.

 

Answer 2

Guild of One Name Studies - http://one-name.org/

I'm a member and doing one on the name Merrilees, Merrylees, Merilees etc..

Comments

Highest density as a quick search:

1820 to 1880 is England, followed by Ireland, Scotland

1720 to 1780 is Scotland

Answer 3

My Grandmother name also was Mabel McClain Grandfather Ed McClain we are Scott Irish. The clan I am related to went from Scotland over to Ireland.