Origins of the McLea or MacLea name

This article will eventually deal with the possible derivations of the name Mac Lea, which is a patronymic name (one derived from a father's name) in the Gaelic fashion. Mac, as typical for Scottish and Irish names, means "son of".

It is believed that this patronymic name went from an early form of a conventional patronymic name, something similar to Mac Dhuinnshleibhe ("son of Dunsleve"), perhaps with Mac an Leagha ("son of the physician") as a nickname/professional name for a group among the Mac Dhuinnshleibhe who were hereditary physicians. An intermediate form of the name would have been Mac On Lea, seen in the 1600s on Bute and also in Argyll among the McLeas there. Finally, its form settled into the modern Mac Lea (though contemporary usage differs on McLea or MacLea. (Although, today, most McLeas are known as Livingstons or Livingstones, like the famous Dr. David Livingstone.)

More detail will be added to this article as it becomes available.

The late Rob Livingston wrote back in 2005 about the linguistics of MacLea names in this in depth article. I am including it here in its entirety because of the Gaelic linguistics I could not master without significant help. It's pretty impressive!

"I was explaining to Mark McConley the technicalities of how the pronunciation of "MacDhonnshleibhe" is reduced to "McOnlea", and I thought it worth repeating here on the forum. I've also included some thoughts on the meaning of "Donn Sleibhe".

"In most Scots-Gaelic surnames involving "mac" (son), the personal name following it is greatly altered, with many of the sounds mutating. This is because the name (or description of the person's occupation) is presented in the "genitive" (possessive) case; in other words, "of John" or "of the blacksmith". So, "Donn Sleibhe" (properly pronounced "don SLAY-va", but usually pronounced "DON slave" or "DOON slave") goes through several mutations to become the genitive, "of Donn Sleibhe".

"The first is that the "D" sound changes to a "y" sound, and this is conveyed to the reader by inserting an "h" after the "D" (Dh). The second mutation is with the "o", which can remain as is or mutate to "ui", pronounced "oo". Next, the "s" becomes aspirated (an expulsion of air around the sides of the tongue, which is held up against the roof of the mouth) producing an "h" sound. If reading or writing modern Gaelic, this will show up as "sh". Next, the "bh" (anything with an "h" following it is called a "fricative"), which normally sounds like a "v", disappears entirely. The final "e" is normally pronounced like "ah", but for some reason most regional dialects drop it or change it to "ee". So in the end, the nominative "DON slave" changes to the genitive "YON-lay" or "YOON-lay. Sometimes the "nn" in "Donn" is inaudible, so we'll notice surnames in the records such as "McColeif", "M'Collea", "McKollie", "McOlea", "McAllea". Black notes that these are found mostly in the parish of Inveravon (Glenlivet), but they are also found in Lorn, the Isle of Harris, and Inverness.

"A note: There is no "h" in the Gaelic alphabet, but it is used to help modern readers know that a letter's sound has mutated. So you will never find an "sh" or a "dh" in an old manuscript.

"So why isn't there a "y" sound in "MacOnlea"? And what happened to the aspirated "h" sound where there was an "s"? In Scotland, and less frequently in Ireland, the first consonant after "mac" is not pronounced. This is called "lenition". So "mak-DON-al" (MacDhomhnaill or MacDonald) drops out the "D" and becomes "mak-CON-al". "mak-DOO-gal" (MacDhubhgal or MacDougall) becomes "ma-COO-al".

"The aspirated "h" (sh) in "MacDhonnshleibhe" and "MacShleibhe" is present, it's just that most English-speaking people usually don't hear it. Mark McConley tells me that people writing his name often get confused because they hear an aspirated "h" when he pronounces the name without thinking too hard about it, and write it "McConally". And his family has retained that pronunciation after five generations of being in the U.S. even though the name is spelled without an "a". The same thing occurs with Gaelic-speakers on the Isle of Harris, where the MacLea's (MacShleibhe) are refered to as "mak-ah-LAY".

"The stress or accent in Gaelic words is almost always placed on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. "Mac" (son) is considered a separate word, so it's syllable in a surname does not affect where you put the stress. Of course, there will always be exceptions.

"Another question that arises is, do you pronounce it "mak-ON-lay" or "mak-ON-lee", "mak-LAY" or "mak-LEE"? This is a matter of who is saying it, where, and how it is heard by the Gaelic-ignorant ear. It's going to vary for town to town, region to region, country to country. It can even be pronounced "mak-lye" to rhyme with "eye".

"As to the meaning of "MacDhonnshleibhe", most people, including George Black who wrote the book, "Surnames of Scotland" translate "MacDhonnshliebhe" as "son of Brown of the mountain" (donn = brown, sleibhe = mountain). The only problem with this is that if the element "sleibhe" is in the genitive case ("of" the mountain), the personal name should be pronounced "don-LAY-va", not "don-SLAY-va" with an "s". And all indications from old manuscripts indicate that the "s" is very definitely pronounced. So I have looked for an alternative translation.

""Donn" (in old Irish, "duin", pronounced "doon") has other meanings besides "brown". Dennis King, a Gaelic scholar shared the following with me. "Examples found tucked into proper names include "Donn Bo", "Donngal", "Donnchadh", "Donnacan", "Donn Cuan", etc. The element(s) "dunno-/donno-" are found all the way back in Gaulish personal names. Delamarre assigns them separate entries: donno- 'noble' & dunno- 'brown'. LEIA reports that other scholars (K.-H. Schmidt, Ellis Evans)do not separate them. One theory is that OI "donn = chief, ruler, noble, lord" and "donn = brown" were originally the very same word, just as "rúad" can mean either "reddish, brownish red" or "mighty, formidable" by poetic extension."

"That said, in Gaelic adjectives or modifiers "follow" a noun, they don't precede it like they do in English. So "Donn" must be a proper noun followed by an adjective that modifies it. "Mountain Chief" or "Mountain Ruler" certainly works here. But what other translations are possible for "Sleibhe"?

"It could be derived from Old Irish "slemon" or Modern Irish "sleamhuin" (pronounced "SLAY-vun"). The word translates as "polished, smooth, silver-tongued, eloquent, or courteous". In Welsh, "smooth, well-spoken" is "llyfn", pronounced "hlee-vin". One of the old abbots of Iona in the 8th Century was "Sleibene", and it's probable that his name translates as a diminutive like "little polished one" ("little mountain man"?). So Donn Sleibhe could just as easily be translated as "well-spoken, polished or courteous nobleman" rather than "brown of the mountain". After all, a nobleman or "Donn" should have all of those positive attributes."