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I looked up Maxwell today and saw that it's supposed to come from "Mack's well" and Mack is a short form of Magnus. I'd swear a few days or weeks ago I looked up Maxwell and it was short for "Macca's well" and Macca was an Old English name. If it wasn't Macca exactly it was something similar. Am I imagining things? If Macca really was an OE name can anyone tell me what it means?
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato
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Both A Dictionary of English Place Names by A.D. Mills, and A Dictionary of Surnames by Hanks & Hodges, give Old English Macca as the source of the first syllable in the English place name and surname Mackworth. However, the original meaning of Macca is unknown. And we now know that Macca is NOT the name behind Maxwell, where the first syllable is from Makkr, a short form of Magnus from an Old Norse form found in southern Scotland.
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Thank you.
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