MacMhuirich (surname)

MacMhuirich
Gender	Masculine
Language(s)	Scottish Gaelic
Other gender
Feminine	NicMhuirich
Origin
Meaning	"son" + "of Muireach"
Other names
Anglicisation(s)	Currie, MacVurich
Families
MacMhuirich bardic family, Clan Macpherson

MacMhuirich is a masculine surname in Scottish Gaelic. The feminine form of the surname is NicMhuirich. The masculine form translates into English as "son of Muireach", and the feminine name translates as "daughter of MacMhuirich". The personal name Muireach means "mariner". The surname has been borne by a noted Hebridean family of bards, who claimed descent from an early 13th-century Irish bard.

The Scottish Gaelic MacMhuirich is a masculine surname. It originated as a patronym, meaning "son of Muireach", although the surname no longer refers to the father of the bearer.

The personal name Muireach is a form of the Irish . These names are derived from the element muir, meaning "sea". The names have been generally translated into English as "mariner"; for example, George Fraser Black translated the names as "belonging to the sea". According to Black, these personal names are much confused with the name Murchadh, which has been translated into English as "sea warrior" and "sea battler".

The feminine form of MacMhuirich is NicMhuirich. This feminine name is composed of the prefix Nic-, which is an abbreviated form of the Scottish Gaelic nighean mhic or nì mhic, which translates into English as "daughter of the son"; thus NicMhuirich translates as "daughter of MacMhuirich"

The Scottish Gaelic MacMhuirich has been Anglicised as MacVurich. The phonetics on the Isle of Arran are such that MacMhuirich was pronounced "Ac Uiri" and "Ac Fuiri" due to elision; thus the Scottish Gaelic surname has also been Anglicised as Currie. The surname MacMhuirich has also been Anglicised as Macpherson, due to a confusion of clan-names borne by separate families (see below).

...
Wikipedia