Origin of the Name MacMaster
The
MacMaster family history 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 McMaster
include Masters, Masterson and Master. This name in Gaelic is Mac a Mhaighstir and the latter variants are the anglicized forms of this. This sept came from Ardgour and Breffny. A sept or clan was a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. The Ardour sept was traditionally said to have been dispossessed by the MacLeans in the fifteenth century but in modern times they are found in Dumfries and Wigtown. The other sept was from Breffny and are of the same origin as the MacGuires of Fermanagh. By the seventeenth century some families had changed their name to Masterson and were found in Counties Cavan and Longford. The spelling McMaster was mostly confined to Counties Antrim and Down.
The MacMaster 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 MacMaster descendants.