MCCLEAN Family History

This notable surname, with spellings of MacLean, Maclean, MacLaine, McLean, McClean, Mccleane, McLane, and many, many, more, is widely recorded in Scotland and Ireland. It is an Anglicized form of the Old Scots Gaelic "MacGille Eoin", son of the devotee of (St.) John, from "Mac", son of, "gille", literally translating as "(man) servant, attendant", but used here in the transferred sense of "devotee", and the saint's name "Eoin", the classic Gaelic form of "John", now widely replaced by "Iain". John derives ultimately from the Hebrew "Yochanan", Jehovah has favoured me (with a son).