| The name
MacKinlay comes from the Gaelic form of Findlayson meaning "son of Findlay" or
MacFhionnlaigh. The name is not common despite being distinctively Scottish but is also to
be found as MacGinlay in county Antrim in Northern Ireland and later in North America. The
clan county of the MacKinlays was the Lennox district, north of Callender and they
descended originally from Findlay a son of Buchanan of Drumikill. According to Buchanan of
Auchmar some of the MacKinlays were also connected to the MacFarlanes. It is possible that
some of the MacKinlays came from the same stock of the MacKinlays as the Farquharsons of
Braemar, as the clan ancestor was Fionnlagh Mor and as a clan are called in Gaelic
"Clann Fhionnlaigh" (This cannot be substantiated because there were no
MacKinlays in Braemar or its vicinity). There are several spellings of the name that
appeared in the 17th century especially in Glenlyon and Balquidder. Although it has been
suggested it is not very probable that the name MacKinlay embraces some of the MacLeays
"sons of Donleavy" with its variants the same as the MacKinlays; Findlay,
Findlay, Finlayson, Donleavy and Macinlay. The MacKinlays have been connected to the
Farquharsons, the Buchanans and sometimes the Stewarts of Appin. From the MacKinlays
descends William McKinley (1843-1901), the 25th President of the United States of America
who also gave his name to Mount McKinley in Alaska. |
