Macrae and Mcrae the same thing?

[hiorta]

There was a fairly large exodus of Caithness Macraths to new Zealand, many well over 7 foot tall - a characteristic of them. They walked from the north of Scotland to Dundee and Edinburgh, for embercation, with all the possessions that were portable, in horse drawn carts.

I knew a man, Macmillan from New Zealand who was on a visit home and lived among them. They even brought their still, a prized possession, which is in regular use today.

On the 'Mac' - son of, the female is denoted as 'Nic' the daughter of.
Hence in the surname Coll, we get the quite well known 'Macoll' and the female 'Nicoll' both also surnames now.

[Duthill]

What year was that , and where in New Zealand did they settle and set up the still ?

Did they all die due to gigantism or alcoholism ?

[racsfpd6595]

the mc,s ending in a celtic surname are different from two seperate celtic peoples locations namely ireland and scotland the way you can tell off the top is mc is irish............mac is scottish but they both mean the same thing....in gaelich....son i hope i have been of any help bob

[Lianachan]

Originally Posted by racsfpd6595

the mc,s ending in a celtic surname are different from two seperate celtic peoples locations namely ireland and scotland the way you can tell off the top is mc is irish............mac is scottish but they both mean the same thing....in gaelich....son i hope i have been of any help bob

A lot of people seem to believe the "Mc is Irish, Mac is Scottish" thing, but it's not actually true. Mc, Mac and even just M' were all used on both sides of the Irish Sea.

[hiorta]

It might be of help if it was known that the surname 'macrae' derives from the gaidhlig 'MacRath' (MacRah).
A characteristic of the Macraes is that many are exceptionally tall people.