Where did the name McCracken originate and how has the name evolved through time?
This is a fun question to research and there nearly as many
opinions and theories as there are experts. Here are a few highlights:
Heritage: I’ve long
been told that my heritage is Scotch-Irish, which I always assumed meant a mixture of Scottish and Irish blood lines, but many reputable
sources argue with that reasoning. Instead, they boldly claim that the label Scotch-Irish
refers to people of Irish descent who moved to Northern Ireland and resided
there for a short time before immigrating to North America. That sounds
reasonable, but nevertheless, in our case, there seems to have been more than more
than one move back and forth between Scotland and Ireland, so there is a good
chance we are an exception to the above rule.
Spelling: I quickly learned in elementary school that it was
necessary to verbalize the capitalization when spelling my name, “Capital M,
little c, Capital C, r, a, c, k, e, n, - no spaces.”
Although that is the correct way for our
modern family tree, a preliminary family history search returns a myriad of
variations on the name, including: MacCracken, MacCraken, MacCrackan, MacCrackin, McCraken,
McCrackan, McCrackin, McCraccan, McCrekan, MacCrachen, McCraikane,
M'Craken, Makcarkan, Makcrakane, Makcraken, Makcrakane, M'Crekane,
M'Crokane, McKraken, McKrachin, McKeracken, M'Krekane.
No wonder
some of our ancestors said, “Mack, just Mack, will do just fine.” Brilliant!
Variations: How did all of these variations come to be? The
first logical reason would seem to be that few common laborers were trained in
writing, spelling and phonetics; genealogies were recorded by oral historians. That is true and the word “oral” is the key to
the puzzle. To put it another way, the pronunciation of consonants in the Scottish Gaelic language is
largely responsible for the variations and changes in spelling (this will be explained later).
Origin: Most name experts believe that McCracken originated from
the family name of Nachten, Lord of Moray, who lived in the 9th century. Over
the course of time as his family grew, generational
prefixes were added to the name. The Gaelic word for “son” is “mac”, which was added as a prefix to family names. Thus, his sons were Mac Nachtans.
Not convinced? Mac Nachtans? That's not even close to McCracken! How did Mac Nachtans become McCrackens?
Gaelic, like all languages, has its own special sound and
spelling rules. These are not just “made up” rules, but have really good reasons.
For example, it is quite awkward to sound a “k” followed by an “n”. The
American solution to this dilemma is to forget the “k”, as in “know” and “knot”.
Gaelic speakers had a different idea, pronouncing “kn” as “kr”. (Actually, Gaelic didn’t have a letter “k”, but we’re talking about the sounds
here.)
Let’s apply this to names. Let’s use our good friend Neil as an example. His son’s
family name would be Mac Neil, using the prefix as described earlier, but his
son’s name would be pronounced Mack-reel, changing the “n” to an “r” sound.
Make sense?
Okay, but wouldn’t that make Mac Nachtan, Mack-rotten? Oh,
dear, there must be more rules we can apply.
The letter combination “ch” in Gaelic was pronounced like a “k”.
So the name Mac Nachtan would be Mack-Rocktan to our ears. Getting closer …
As this is becoming quite tedious, here is one simple version of one possible progression from Nachtan to McCracken:
Nachten
Son of Nachten was Mac Nachten
Pronounced Mack-Rocktan
The “t” was difficult to hear and was dropped to make the
name Mac Rachen
The “c” sound was duplicated to become Mac Crachen
If “h” sounds like a “k” – why not spell it that way – MacCracken
“Mac” abbreviated to “Mc” - Mc Cracken
Condensed to one word – McCracken
Although our family name has apparently had many mutations
and variations throughout the ages, I certainly hope that the family will
always remain true to the statement on the Mac Nachtan Clan Crest which bears a
castle tower surrounded by a circlet and the pledge “I Hope in God”.
