McNish Name History and Information.

The following information has been collected from the Internet, family genealogy research and contact from people on the Internet.  If any of this information can be proven or disproven please contact this sites webmaster and corrections will be made.

The name McNish, which is Scottish in origin has many different ways of spelling that have become accepted thruout the years. Examples of this are "MacNish" MacNeish" "Macness" Mackness" and others.  It is derived from the "son of" convention of namesakes. Example "Peirson" is used as "Son Of Pier"  In the name McNish it is simply "Son of Angus" It is derived from the name MacNaois. "Mac" meaning "Son Of" and "Naois" meaning of course "Angus".

  The furthest back I have found any form of McNish is on a small island in loch (lake) Earn in the middle of Scottland. From what I understand McNish broke away from the clan Macgregor somewhere in the 13th century, and fled to this small island in hiding. The clan eventually became very large landowners, untill a fued in the 15th century with the McNabb clan which nearly wiped the poor ole McNish's off the planet.  The conflict with the McNabbs resulted in the death of every McNish except for a Thomas MacNeish, who is said to be the ancestor of any and all McNish's living today. The name now is found thruout the world in many countries, mainly Scotland, Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, The United States and Canada. The current naming version, McNish, has been found dating back to the early 17 hundreds.

A visitor to this website, Scott, left this bit of information I found interesting:

On the island of Antigua in the West Indies, there is a mountain (bit of an exaggeration since it is only 1,200 ft. high) named "McNish Mountain." Supposedly a McNish left Scotland in the 1700s and came to the Caribbean to make his money on sugar. There is an old sugar mill on top of the mountain along with ruins of a cistern and a plantation house. I did find what could either be a tombstone or perhaps a cornerstone that has the date 1832 still visible plus a few letters, but the rest of the text has been weathered too badly.

For more information about the McNish family crest, clan motto or famous McNishs, please click on the The McNish Name link above.  If anyone has more information pertaining to the McNish name history please email it to me.

mailto:mike@clanmcnish.com