How to write Macbeth or MacBeth?

[ognil]

Hello guys,

English is not my mother's language, so I asked the experts:

Q:
I get the impression that names beginning with Mac generally seem to be followed by a capital, and yet Macbeth doesn't. Is that impression correct?

A:
1. No, other Scottish surnames are found without a capital after the 'Mac', and even Macbeth is sometimes spelled as MacBeth.

2.The spelling Macbeth is the anglicised form of the medieval Gaelic Mac Bethad:

Macbeth, c.1040 Macbeth, c.1040 © Macbeth was a king of the Scots whose rule was marked by efficient government and the promotion of Christianity, but who is best known as the murderer and usurper in William Shakespeare's tragedy.

Mac Bethad mac Findláich, known in English as Macbeth , was born in around 1005. His father was Finlay, Mormaer of Moray, and his mother may have been Donada, second daughter of Malcolm II. A 'mormaer' was literally a high steward of one of the ancient Celtic provinces of Scotland, but in Latin documents the word is usually translated as 'comes', which means earl.

3. And Mac Bethad is not Scottish; it is Old or Middle Irish. In modern-day Scottish, it is Mac Bheatha. This particular name was Anglicised (and often even modern-Scotticised) as one word with no interCaps. 

4.It isn't in 'Scottish' at all, it's in Gaelic.

Thank you.