Sept and Family Names

Septs are families that followed another family’s chief. These smaller septs would then comprise, and be part of the chief’s larger clan. A sept might follow another chief if two families were linked through marriage or, if a family lived on the land of a powerful laird, they would follow him whether they were related or not. Bonds of manrent were sometimes used to bind lesser chiefs and his followers to more powerful chiefs.

With a few exceptions, spelling variants are omitted, but are accepted. M’, Mc and Mac are considered interchangeable. Many names were adopted as a result of the Proscription. Some families retained the new names when the Proscription was lifted in 1774 while many others re-adopted their rightful name of MacGregor.

The Society extends a warm welcome to

• Persons bearing names included in List A and to those with a maternal descent from an eligible person.
• Persons bearing the names of descent from Lists B and C who can show evidence of descent or a family tradition of MacGregor connection.

Names in List D are properly the domain of other Clan and Family societies, however we would welcome enquiries from persons bearing these names who can show their descent from a MacGregor who adopted the name as an alias.

List A : Accepted MacGregor Names and Septs

List B : Documented Aliases of MacGregor from the Proscription

List C : Traditional Aliases with little documented evidence

List D : Other Clan names that are known to have been used by the MacGregors