Origin of the Name McGregor
The ancient history of the name
McGregor was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name McGregor
include Gregor and McGreggor. These Scottish families descend from Gregor, a son of King Alpin who lived in the eighth century. They had great possessions in Perthshire and Argyllshire. They held their lands by the sword and eventually their name was suppressed in Parliament. In the thirteenth century they held lands in Glenorchy. Patrick, who succeeded in 1390, had two sons, John Dhu MacGregor of Glenstrae and Gregor MacGregor of Roro. The Chieftainship then went to the Glenstrae branch. In 1502 the line of Roro was dispossessed by the Campbells. In 1603 the MacGregors overthrew their oppressors, the Colquhouns of Luss, at Glenfruin. For this they were outlawed, and their Chief, Alexander MacGregor, was executed in Edinburgh in 1604, but as late as 1774 MacGregor of Glengyle drew blackmail on the Highland Borders. The suppression of the name was annulled in 1774. Rob Roy MacGregor was of the House of Glengyle.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The McGregor coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all McGregor descendants.