Talk:Maccus mac Arailt

Maccus/ Magnus - why not??
This article now reads "Maccus's name is sometimes incorrectly given as Magnus; it is instead a name of Old Irish origin." - instead of putting "citation needed" tag I'm asking here what that this assumption is based on. Given his fathers name being Harald (Arailt) I would have thought that Magnus is a likely name indeed? Finn Rindahl (talk) 00:34, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * There's a bit on this in Downham's book (p. 186). There's an article on the name Maccus was written by David E. Thornton ("Hey Mac! The name Maccus, Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries" in Nomine volume 20, 1997) which is cited by Downham and Woolf. The name only seems to be found in the Irish sea zone and there are some placenames in the Scottish borders which apparently include it (Maxton, Maxwell, Longformacus). "It is certain that this name is not, as is often stated, a form of the later Scandinavian name Magnus." (Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 190, note 26). Angus McLellan (Talk) 00:59, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll just have to wait for Dowhams book then (should be in the mail by now...). AFM uses Mhaghnus, but then again AFM does a lot of funny things. Finn Rindahl (talk) 12:07, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

What is the reason in Dowham's book? The claim that it isn't from "Magnus" based on placenames seems, to be blunt, stupid. Obviously if it is a Gaelicised version of the name "Magnus", you'd expect to find it I'm placenames in Gaelic areas, rather than "Magnus" itself. The Mummy (talk) 22:41, 4 June 2021 (UTC)