Origin of The Name
The surname Mackenzie is of Scottish origin and derived from Gaelic. The name is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Coinnich, which is a patronymic form of the personal name Coinneach meaning "comely" or "handsome". Today personal name Coinneach is generally Anglicised as Kenneth however Kenneth was originally used as an Anglicisation of different Gaelic personal name – Cionaodh.
The Anglicised Mackenzie had originally been pronounced "Mackaingye" – with a modern English Y sound represented with the letter yogh ȝ. In the 18th century it became popular to write and pronounce the name with what is the equivalent of a modern English Z sound, because of the similarity of the letter yogh and letter Z. There are Lowland Scots words and Scottish names that have been affected in a similar way (example: the surname Menzies).
Read more about this topic: Clan Mackenzie
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