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Miles MacInnes, a director of the London and North-Western Railway, was also M.P. for Hexham.

McInnisch 1692, Mcwynwiss 1525, McGinnis and M'Guenis 1745, MacInnish 1745, V;Invische 1587

and “MacNinch, from MacAonghus, 'son of Angus', q.v.”

This next part is quoted from "The Name MacInnes" section, pages 4-6, part of Clan MacInnes [11],

the 57-page publication by Clan MacInnes:

“The name MacInnes is derived from Angus. The origin of the name is Gaelic aonghais (unique

choice). The Gaelic name is MacAonghais (son of Angus) while in the Irish the name is MacAongusa.

The Irish Guiness and MacGuiness families also trace their ancestry to a chief of Dalriada.

“The name Angus is purely Celtic, from Aon, “one”, and gusa, “choice”.

The name Innes is derived from Gaelic Aonghais, and so by adding Mac we get MacAonghais,

“Son of the Choice One”, which has been Englished [sic] to MacInnes and MacAngus.

-- Rev. Somerled MacMillan, in The Scottish Genealogist, Dec. 1970

“Angus is one of the oldest names in the Gaelic language occuring frequently in Scottish and

Pictish history. Gaelic orthography is Aongas, but, as in the genitive, the g is aspirated by the

following h, the word is pronounced Aon'es, and hence Innes.

-- McIan, Costumes of the Clans of Scotland, 1845.

“And then there is the age-old question as to when is it “Mac” or should it be “Mc”.

A newspaperman in Edinburgh, writing under the pen name of Allan Douglas, wrote a weekly

column in the Weekly Scotsman. In 1962, in response to a letter sent to his paper, he sent the

following information to a Miss MacBryde who lived in Raeford, North Carolina:

“'Mc' is merely a contraction of the Gaelic word Mac. Mainly in Ireland it once became common,

when writing in Gaelic, to use a sign known as a macron in abbreviating words. The macron is a

short line about the size of a hyphen, which is used to denote a vowel missing. Hence 'Mac' became

'Mc' with a macron over 'c'.

“Later on, people who did not realize the significance of the macron sign, thought it was simply

decorative, so they changed it, thinking it would look better under the 'c'. Hence 'Mc'. Still later,.

people who didn't know the macron had any significance at all began putting two short hyphen-sized

lines under the 'c'. Still others changed the [horizontal] lines ... and made them run perpendicularly

“Most of our highland ancestors who came from Scotland's mountains could not speak English

(they spoke Gaelic) and when they arrived in North Carolina, it was then the latter part of the

18th century. At this time the use of 'Mc' as a contraction of 'Mac' was in current fashion.

This explains why most North Carolinians of Highland ancestry spell their names 'Mc'.

Also, on page 44 of the same book is this pronunciation gem:

GAELIC NAME: MacAONGHAIS (Pronounced Mock-ah-noo-ish)

After practicing the Gaelic pronunciation a few times, the reader is invited to draw his / her own

conclusions about the origins of our current surnames “McAninch”, “McIninch”, “MacNinch”, etc.

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