scottish or irish?

Question

my fiance's surname is McCorkle and he swears that it is Irish. I looked on the internet and it says that it is scottish, but he doesn't believe me. Does anyone know if the name McCorkle can have an Irish background too? Also, has anyone ever heard of a filipino surname of "felicia or feliciano"? Sounds awfully Italian to me, but it was my full bloodied filipino grandfather's original surname before he changed it to move to the u.s.

Answer 1

I imagine it could be both, but honestly it sounds really Scottish. Also Filipinos have last names like Felicia because it was a Spanish colony for a long period.

Answer 2

Many Filipino surnames are Spanish, Feliciano is a fairly common Spanish surname.
What type of Irish is he? There 4 basic Gaelic groups, excluding the Welsh 1. The Scots-Irish, Protestant Scots that settled first in Northern Ireland and emigrated in large numbers in the 18th and early 19th century.Settling mostly in the frontier of Pennsylvania and the South
2. The Catholic Irish- That emigrated in large numbers in the from the mid 19th to the early 20th centuries and settled in the cities of Boston and New York.
3 and 4 Lowland and Highland Scots

Scots and Irish both spoke the same basic language Gaelic, so many of the surnames are from the same roots. Like Germans,Swiss and Austrians having the same German surnames. MacDonald for example is common among both Irish and Scots. The O' is usually always Irish. The Mac or Mc is usually patronic meaning the son of MacDougal(Douglas),McAndrews etc.

Answer 3

There is no reason why a Scottish family could not have moved to Ireland back in the mists of time or vice versa. In fact this was very common especially in Ulster due to its close links with Scotland. My mother's family are McDonnell which is a Scottish name but have been in Ireland so long that nobody can remember any Scottish links whatsoever. If your fiancee reckons he's of Irish decent he most likely has a reason (like family history) to do so.

As regards, the Filipino surname I reckon it was something adopted by your grandfather's family at some point during the Spanish colonial period...just a guess though!

Answer 4

Scotland was founded by Scots which was a collection of Irish tribes. The language of Scotland, Scots Gaelis is a dialect of Irish(Gaelige). The name structures are shared Mac/Mc means son Ó is more common in Ireland but Mac/Mcs are still popular. When families were immigrating to the USA their names were corrupted on Ellis Island, so the name could be something else completely like McCorcoran.

As for the filipino surname it is most likely because of the Spanish colonisation when they had the country for over two centuries.

Answer 5

Most Irish surnames were originally Scottish ones - there was a lot of migration. A tell tale way of finding out whether his is of Irish lineage or Scottish lineage would be to ask him what other surnames there are in his family - ones with "gh" in the spelling as opposed to "ch" would indicate that they are Irish rather than Scottish of origin e.g. Gallagher cf. Gallacher.

Answer 6

As a Scot myself (Grant), and living in Stirling, i can tell you that many of the Scottish surnames come from Irish, as the Scots origianally came from Ireland. McCorckle is one of these names. Another example is the surname Kilpatrick, which is both Irish and Scots. Basically, Celtic names, Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornwall, can trace their ancestory back to France and Gaul.

As for Felicia, it comes from the latin for ”Felicity”

Hope that helps!

Answer 7

I have to say I have no idea. I'm Irish however, and I've never come across the name McCorkle.