Mcindoe - Name

Recorded in the spellings of MacIndoe and MacIndrew, and in the short forms commening 'Mc', this is a famous Scottish surname. It is said that the family of MacIndoe of Strathblane can trace their ancestry back before the 15th century, although the published records and registers give a first recording in Aberdeenshire in 1550. This was when Andreas MacYndow appears in the land charters of Murthlac. The origin of the name is obscure. Black's famous book 'Surnames of Scotland', written in the the USA in 1946, and yet still the most comprehensive work on Scottish surnames, suggests that the development is from the Gaelic 'Mac Iain Duibh', which translates as the 'son of Black John', and this may well be so. It is a Gaelic tradition that the clan name follows on from the (usually) nickname, held for better or worse, by the original chief. The MacIndoes are said to be a branch of Clan Buchanan, the claim being that the first chief (Black John?) was a Buchanan who migrated to Argyllshire. In 1618 one Donald McIndoue was arrested for carrying arms illegally, although later the clan members seem to have become members of the establishment. Walter McIndoe, for instance, who was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, was a member of the American Congress during the Civil War of 1860 - 64.