Frequency and Distribution
In Scottish surname data, no distinction is made between, for instance, "Macdonald" and "MacDonald". According to this data, the following frequency information can be collated:
| Year(s) | Macdonald Rank | %freq | McDonald Rank | %freq |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1855–1858 | 2 | 1.23 | <50 | <0.30 |
| 1901 | ||||
| 1935 | 2 | 1.03 | <50 | <0.28 |
| 1958 | 3 | 0.98 | <50 | <0.26 |
| 1976 | 10 | 0.59 | 23 | 0.40 |
| 1990 | 10 | 0.55 | 32 | 0.35 |
| 1999–2001 | 9 | 0.55 | 24 | 0.37 |
- Table References
Frequency data from England of 1891 shows a concentration of families bearing the "Macdonald" surname in Lancashire and Yorkshire with a lower frequency in the northernmost counties, but overall widespread distribution throughout the country. "McDonald" shares the same pattern of distribution. Looking at contemporaneous data from the United States, coast-to-coast distribution of both "Macdonald" and "McDonald" appears in 1880. Looking back to 1840 in the United States, the prevalence of "McDonald" is far greater than that of "Macdonald", with concentration in the Ohio-Pennsylvania-New York corridor.
Read more about this topic: Macdonald
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