To best understand the name McAteer, we must realize that it is neither our original name, nor the only legitimate name of our family. In fact, our original name began its career not so much as a surname, as we know surnames today, but as a descriptive phrase in the ancient Gaelic tongue. Our name has a literally prehistoric root, in the old Gaelic title "Mhac an t'Saoir", which means "the son of the carpenter (or craftsman)." The Gaelic noun "saoir" has a number of meanings, and it is used variously to refer to carpenters, masons, or to men who were learned or skilled in some trade. Today, one would not presume to blur the line between carpenters and masons (after all, they belong to different unions), but in earlier times the same man might well practise several trades. Thus, we now tend to translate "saoir" as "craftsman."
There is nothing unique about our name having arisen as a descriptive phrase. Most older Irish names have a similar history, and that raises a problem. If people were named "son of the baker," "son of the cobbler" and so on, why was there not a "son of the craftsman" in every village in Ireland? "Mhac an t'Saoir" covers a suspiciously narrow part of Ireland and Scotland. In fact, the Irish and Scottish branches are as close to each other as the Irish sea will permit.
"Mhac an t'Saoir" itself turns up under at least two spellings. The same name was in use in Ireland and Scotland, and it appeared on gravestones in Scotland as late as the eighteenth century, usually as "Mac an tSaoir", after which time it usually appears as MacIntyre. Its earliest documented use though, is in Ireland, in the sixth century, when it first enters recorded history as the name of a saint!
Saint Ciaran Mhac an t'Saoir was born in 512 AD, somewhere in the northern province of Ulster. He trained under Saint Enda, at Inishmore, an island just off the west coast of County Galway. Thence, the young Ciaran went on to found Clonmacnoise in 544 AD. That institution turned into the greatest centre of learning in Ireland, and was a source of light in the western world for half a millennium. With Saint Ciaran we see the first mention in Irish history, of the title "Mhac an t'Saoir."
Now, historians tell us that surnames did not appear until recently. In fact Ireland was one of the first countries to introduce surnames, which it did under the High King, Brian Baru, in the ninth century. Are we then to conclude that up until the ninth century, the Irish referred to each other by pointing and grunting?
We have not seen this question addressed elsewhere, but our own diggings into Irish nicknames throw some light on the subject. Although nicknames may appear quite informal, they follow rules. Nicknames tend to be unique within a region; they are stable over long periods of time; they all come with an interesting origin tale which explains how they arose, and which probably helps perpetuate the nickname; they usually arise from some memorable historic event; and while they appear soon enough when needed, they are not given out carelessly. It is almost as though they were controlled.
Of course, nicknames are controlled. Ireland had until recently, a strong oral tradition, and nicknames were under considerable control. The tradition of nicknames in Ireland makes us think that the Irish always had names of some kind, and that all King Brian Baru did, was to make them a requirement under the law. Otherwise, too many questions are begged. If no one had a family name, where did the king get the idea, and who thought up all those Irish names, on the spur of the moment? If anyone can shed more light on this topic, we will be pleased to hear from them.
Next, we must understand how our clan name evolved from "Mhac an t'Saoir" to "McAteer" or whatever present day variant it evolved to. In the fullness of time, any oft repeated phrase or expression will slowly condense into a more manageable string of syllables. An example might be the word "goodbye" which comes from the phrase "God be with you." Similarly the modern spelling and pronunciation of "Mhac an t'Saoir" as a single word, had appeared by the eighteen hundreds. As this happened over some period of time, and in different places, many different spellings arose, and McAteer is just one of these, albeit the most common. Some of the names that are known to be, or thought to be derived from Mhac an t'Saoir are:
MacAtee Matear Mateer Matier Matire McAtear McAteer McAtier McAtee McEnteer McEntire McInteer McIntyre McTear McTeer McTier Meteer Metteer and Irish forms of: Carpenter Freeman Searson Seary Wright
These latter surnames, which are English translations of "Mhac an t'Saoir" are thought to have arisen early in the English occupation of Ireland. They arose in the "Pale of Dublin" which was the area immediately around that city, which was heavily occupied by English, and was partially walled off from the rest of the country. It is thought that those of our clan living in that area, translated their names to English, to better fit in, and so "Mhac an t'Saoir" became Carpenter, Freeman, Searson, Seary, or Wright.
Freeman was an acceptable translation because the skilled tradesman was usually a free man, and this was true often enough that "saoir" has the secondary meaning of "free" in Gaelic. Interestingly, we have not found a single case where the name is translated into "smith," "mason," "blacksmith," or "tinker," so there seems little doubt that our ancestors associated their surname with wood working. MacLysaght writes that these names are often McAteers in disguise, when they are not actually English surnames, although he does not tell us how to tell the difference four hundred years later.
The various abbreviated forms of "Mhac an t'Saoir" arise from several causes, and we have had to rethink our ideas about their origins. We originally thought that the entire variety came out of Ireland, and could be explained by differences in spelling in different parts of the country.
To be sure, if you search through old family documents, letters, church records, and the like, our surname is spelt in a baffling variety of ways. That is not surprising, because there were no established ways of spelling Irish surnames at first, so often the writer just invented a spelling. Things were different in government offices though. The civil service was much more consistent in evolving and promoting standards, and you can see these standards evolving from one census to the next. By the nineteen hundreds, "Mc Ateer" and "Mac Intyre" (note the space) had replaced nearly all other variations of "Mhac an t'Saoir" for Irish and Scottish families, respectively.
Some of the present day varieties may have come about at the hands of immigration officials in the new world. Irish census clerks, faced with the repetitive task of writing out columns of names, soon found ways to save energy. At first, "Mhac" (the genitive case, meaning "son of") became the nominative case "Mac" meaning "son". By then, English was the language of government, and English does not have declensions or case, so why not? Next, "Mac" was shortened to "Mc", and then to "M". "Mhac an t'Saoir" probably became "Mhac Anteer" which became "Mac Ateer" which became "Mc Ateer" which became "M'Ateer." Such changes were only seen in government records. The Irish continued to pronounce their names as they always had. In fact, the pronunciation of today's "Mc Ateer" is hard to distinguish from the original "Mhac an t'Saoir."
When the Irish reached the New World, the papers they were carrying may well have shown the abbreviated form of their surnames, and so we get names like Magee, Magill, Maguire, and of course Mateer. In the New World, the need for an apostrophe was less obvious, so that too was dropped. People arriving without papers would have spoken their surnames to immigration agents, who were not always Irish. At Quebec for example, they would have been French speaking. These agents wrote the names as they heard them. All told, the agents were remarkably accurate and consistent, but some error was inevitable. Certainly, there are now more forms of Irish names outside Ireland than there are within.
We have collected a number of stories about how surnames changed during emigration, and some of them appear in later articles. If you have such a story, please let us know, so we can include it.
Outside Ireland and Scotland, there is a modern tendency to pronounce "Mc" differently from "Mac" with most names. McAteer seems to have been an exception, although McTeer tends to be pronounced "Mic Teer." Both "Mac" and "Mc" are simply different renderings of the same Gaelic word, so these modern spoken differences are really products of the New World.
Some names, such as McTyre, Meteer, and Metteer, seem to be American variants of older names, as these three names are rare or non-existent in Europe, and seem confined almost entirely to the USA. "McAtee" presents us with a different mystery. It is an Ulster name, and if you look at the settlement patterns of Ulster names between Canada and the USA, there is usually a seven-to-one ratio. "McAtee" does not follow the "7:1 rule." The number of McAtees in the USA is far greater than the number of McAteers, and there are only a handful of McAtees in Canada - an imbalance not seen with other Ulster names. At least one American McAtee informs us he has traced his line back to a McAteer, who arrived in Canada in the 1800's, but this cannot be the complete explanation.
Someone suggested that some "Mhac an t'Saoir" variants may actually come from converted German names. As far as we can discover, there have not been any interchanges from the German names Polmateer, Palmeteer, and Meter, nor have we found any from the Irish surname, McTiernan. Neither did we have any luck following up on the theory that "Matier" comes from a French word for building materials.
Elsewhere we mentioned that McAteers emigrating over to Scotland would often change their name to MacIntyre, and that there are historical records of MacIntyres immigrating into Ireland, and converting to McAteer. There have been cases where a given family would switch names more than once in its travels. We do not know exactly why this happened. Were such families just conforming to what they saw as a local convention in spelling, or did they believe they were changing names to better fit in? If the former, then they must have believed that McAteer and MacIntyre were the same family.
Even if the Irish and Scottish Mhac an t'Saoirs were seperate families in the beginning (a theory we seriously question), they did not stay separate long. As early as about 1300 AD, Irish nobles were importing Scottish gallowglasses (mercenaries) to protect their interests from the invading Normans. Some of these were MacIntyres who settled in Ireland, and disappeared into the fabric of Irish society. Later on, the "Plantation of Ireland" began (1608 AD), with English kings replacing Irish farmers with loyal Scottish Protestants, among whom were MacIntyres, now converted to Protestantism, as Scotland had since become Protestant under the English. Many of these later MacIntyre settlers became McAteers.
This interchangeability of surnames must have ended when written records began to be kept, for today the biggest concentration of McAteers outside Ulster, is around Glasgow, Scotland. These families, who probably arrived during the Irish potato famine, and during the early industrialization of Scotland, have not become MacIntyres. Some authorities mention "MacAteers," but we have not been able to find that surname in any of our searches, so it too has probably fallen prey to abbreviation (there is a Ballymacateer near Lurgan, Co. Armagh). Clan MacIntyre recognizes MacTear, MacTier, and McTier as variants of MacIntyre.
It may be worth noting that some Scottish MacTiers are from Clan Ross, and their name comes from "son of the wolf" and not "son of the craftsman." These people are not related to Mhac an t'Saoir at all.
A number of authorities on the history of Scottish and British surnames seem agreed that the names McAteer, MacAteer, MacTier and MacTear are shortened forms of MacIntyre. This idea is certainly relevant in the Scottish context, and while it is sometimes true of Irish McAteers it is probably more the exception than the rule, in the Irish context.
The Ulster Historical Foundation sent us a Mhac an t'Saoir demographic map showing the distribution of the McAteer and McIntyre names in Ireland. Here is the explanation which accompanied the map:
<< The Gaelic surname Mac an tSaoir belongs to both Ireland and Scotland. Meaning "son of the craftsman", in Scotland the name became MacIntyre, whilst in Ireland McAteer is found as well as McIntyre. There is a Ballymacateer near Lurgan and a Carrickmacintyre in Co. Mayo. There has been some loss by translation: to Carpenter in Dublin, to Wright in Fermanagh, and from a secondary meaning of "saoir", to Freeman elsewhere.The map shows the distribution of some 1,440 Mac an tSaoir families in 1992. The green dots are the 35% who are McAteer. The red dots are the 65% who are McIntyre. Though some of the Ulster McIntyres may be of planter origin, a Scottish origin for many of the McIntyres in Ireland may be discounted: the name is too widespread. For the most part McAteer and McIntyre are likely to be variant spellings of the same Irish name. The existance of the Scottish name may have caused substitutions for McAteer.
There is a cluster of families in Mayo, which for many names is an indicator of population shift from Ulster or elsewhere.
Like another craft surname, McGowan and its anglicized form Smith, Mac an tSaoir is scarce in the southern half of the island. McAteer is very much an Ulster name. Some 86% of McAteer families live there. Over most of the province McAteers are mingled with McIntyres, but a quarter of all McAteer families in Ireland live in the cluster in south Armagh and south Down where there are very few McIntyres. South Down was outside the area of the Plantation of Ulster, and this may account for the Irish rather than Scottish name form in this area. There is a corresponding McIntyre cluster in north Antrim.
Dublin has 11% of the clan's families, mainly McIntyres. Belfast has 15%, half being McAteers. >>
FREEMAN:
We thought we were getting somewhere with this name, but it turns out to have
been another false trail. The Irish Freemans generally come out of the "Pale
of Dublin" when it was under English control. So far we do not have a single
documented case of a Mhac an t'Saoir-Freeman conversion, but MacLysaght must
have, as he seems very sure of that origin for Irish Freemans.
If MacLysaght is correct, then Irish Freemans in the Pale would probably have made a conscientious effort to eliminate any records connecting them with their old Gaelic name. We are currently watching some research into the Freeman name. If anyone else makes any progress with this name, would they please inform us?
MacATEER:
In writing about Irish surnames, MacLysaght seems to use this spelling
in place of "McAteer" as though it were the norm. Did the name exist,
or did MacLysaght simply not distinguish between "Mac" and "Mc?" After
much digging, we have found one MacAteer listed in London, one in the
U.S.A., and one in Australia. The world population must therefore be
at least three! With such a low present day count, and no listings in
Ulster, it seems more likely that MacLysaght regarded "Mc" as an
unnecessary abbreviation of "Mac."
MacCATEER:
In 1853, Ann MacCateer arrived in Australia, at the age of 16. She married
and had eleven children, for which Australia is a finer place today! We
don't know how she came by this interesting variant of the clan name, as
the information was discovered in various documents, by her descendants.
MacHINE:
During the Industrial Revolution, many of our people were forced to emigrate
to Scotland and even to England, to find work. Many found themselves working
shoulder to shoulder with MacHines, and that name is often mentioned
(sometimes fondly) in old letters to their families back in the homeland.
Strangely, despite the close relationship which developed between expatriated
McAteers and MacHines, there is not a single known case of the bringing forth
of progeny, either within or without Holy Wedlock.
MacTEIRE, MacTIRE:
The surname MacTeire or MacDire appears in Co. Sligo, and may account for some of the MacTires, MacTears, MacTyres, etc., in later records. It has no relation to MacAteer or MacAtee, and is in fact based on the name Dubh Odhar (Duibidar). The name is also anglicized "MacDwyer." The MacTeires of Sligo (or MacDire) though are definitely a completely different family. Their name is based on Mac Dubh Oidhar, which has no connection with the Gaelic words "saoir" or "saoi."
The surname MacTire (MacTeire, MacDire, McDier) is fairly numerous in County Sligo in the Census of 1659. It too bears similarities to the name MacAteer, but the derivation as given by Woulfe is completely different, so it is not related to "McAteer."
Woulfe deduces the name from Duibh Odhar; it is properly anglicized "MacDwyer" but some of the variant forms may cause confusion with McAteer.
MAHATEER
We have heard a lot lately about Prime Minister Mahateer Mohammed
of Malaysia. Dr. Mahateer is a fiscal reformer who has been busy
turning the Malaysian economy around, and he has become a player
in various international peace processes. We do not know of any
connection with the McAteer name, but we are investigating.
MATEER, M'ATEER
In digging through historical records, we find census takers tiring of
repeatedly writing "Mhac Xxxxx," and so they would abbreviate the Gaelic
"Mhac" or "Mac" (for "son of"), to "Mc" and later to "M'Xxxx."
In our case, "Mhac an t'Saoir" became "Mac Ateer," which became
"Mc Ateer," which became "M'Ateer." None of this was taken literally
in Ireland, so the name was still pronounced as it always had been. However,
it was used in legal documents, so when the Irish arrived overseas, the
legal documents they were carrying were copied exactly as written, and we got
"M'Ateer." Later on, apostrophes and spaces were dropped, leaving "Mateer" as
a surname in the New World. In Ireland, "M'Ateer" in the Tithe Applotment books
of 1831 reverted to "Mc Ateer" in the Griffiths Valuation, thirty years
later (note the space in the Irish record).
MATIER - The French Connection:
Well, there's McAteer, McTeer and Mateer, and there's McAtear, McTear, and Matear,
and of course, everyone knows they're Irish, but when we put the McAtiers, McTiers,
and Matiers together, they shouted "No, no - the Matiers are French."
We set out to investigate this French Connection, and sure enough we dug up two separate accounts which pointed directly back to France. One Matier, who had been born in Ireland, was attending a course during the war, when his instructor surprised him by explaining that the name "Matier" was French, and not Irish at all. This good man explained that the name was supposed to be pronounced "may - tea - air". Well, Matier does have a French look to it. In fact when we first encountered it, we wondered the same thing. Why did it bother us - of what were we being reminded?
Apart from the "ier" ending, which is common in French, there are two French words which look similar. One is "métier", the French word for a trade or workshop. It would be pronounced "may - tea - ay", where "ay" is a long or hard "a", as in "gray". The other is "matière", the French word for material, pronounced "ma - tea - air". We wonder if our English source had not married these two words together to come up with his "French" pronunciation of Matier. In any case, the leading hard "a" sound would have to come from "é" ("e" with the acute accent), as in Métier, and not from an "a", which produces the soft sound.
We searched both French dictionaries and phone books to no avail. There are some businesses named "Métier . . .", but no people. We had the same results with "Matière". We did come across "Metier", a genuine French name, and we talked to its owner about its origins. It is a Breton name, and Brittany was a Gaelic speaking region. But M. Metier explained that it was an old name, with no Irish connection of any kind, as far as he knew. Besides, it does not have the leading hard "a" sound. The French are a literate lot, and not a people inclined to randomness where spelling is concerned. "E acute" is quite a stable part of their language, so it seems unlikely that the present spelling of Matier could have come from Métier.
Turns out that the course Mr. Matier was attending, was on some naval subject, and was taught at the Admiralty school in London. The instructor was neither French nor Irish, but a Britt. We have to conclude that our English instructor was as inventive in the field of genealogy as he was in linguistics.
The second source was in the form of a story about an Irishman of unknown name. He had gone off to France, to fight in some early war. He had met a charming mademoiselle there, and as is wont to happen during war time, he and she lost no time entering into family life. They were subsequently separated by the savagery of circumstance, and it was more than a decade before the proud father was able to return to France. By that time his son was a well established fact, and the boy had taken his mother's name, "Matier". This brave lad went on to found a minor dynasty.
We searched most of the east coast of France (via Internet), town by town, and were unable to come up with any Matiers. It was as if the earth had swallowed them up. None were to be found in the major cities either, . . Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, etc. Then it emerged that our venturesome soldier had brothers who were also named Matier! It seems likely that our young French scion may have taken his mother's name for one of his Christian names, and that Matier was, in fact, his father's name.
In the end, both French origin tales turn out to be greatly entertaining, but unsubstantial. We have therefore placed "Matier" back in the Irish category, where it will stay until someone comes up with a tremendously persuasive theory to the contrary. Welcome back, Matiers!
MatsATSUKENTAIA or MatsKENTAIYA
We include these two Japanese variants of McEntyre (encountered by Peter McEntyre in Japan)
because they have something to teach us. They reflect the trouble most non-Gaelic people
have, even with present day variants of Mhac an t'Saoir. They also show how people of
differing linguistic backgrounds actually hear differently, and will render the same
sounds into very different spellings. Note that the Gaelic "Mhac" sound has been softened
with an "s" in the Japanese rendering (Mats). Perhaps some Japanese scholars will be kind
enough to tell us why this happens.
This example may help us to understand why there is so much variation in our name.
McALEER
Are they related? We found 912 McAleer listings in the US, 123 in Canada (so they follow
the 7 to 1 rule for Ulster families), and 154 in the UK. In Ireland the McAleers are most
numerous in counties Antrim, Down and Tyrone, although they have historic roots in Armagh
and Monaghan too. The original Irish name is thought to have been Mhac Giolla Uidhir. In
Scotland there is a concentration in Galloway, thought to be of Irish origin. There is
also a sept of Clan McLeod, originally called Mac Gille Leabhair, or "son of the servant of
the book", and latterly known as MacAleer, MacClure, and MacLure. The strong presence of
Canadian McAleers in Quebec and the Maritimes speaks more of the Highland Clearances than
of the Great Famine.
Apart from a similarity of spelling, we could find no link with the McAleers. Providence may have been kind in keeping the McAteers and McAleers separate, because it is almost impossible for a McAteer to write "McAleer" without attempting to cross the "L."
McATEE
"McAtee" is believed by many, to derive from the Gaelic "Mhac an
t'Saoi"; "saoi" being the word for "scholar" or "sage". MacLysaght
traces McAtees to Counties Armagh and Monaghan, and McAteers to
Armagh, Antrim, and Donegal. There is a suspicious closeness in the
distribution of these two names in Ireland, just as there is in the
spellings of the names themselves. "Saoi" and "saoir" are not only close
in spelling, but their historic meanings are close as well.
We have no figures for McAtee listings in the Irish Republic, but we can find 38 in the U.K. listing, and over 60% of these addresses are in Scotland - the rest being in England. In the USA, the McAtees outnumber the McAteers, but we only found 8 listings in Canada, and most of those came up from the US. Based on the usual proportions for Ulster names, one might expect to find between 50 and 60 in the USA, but there are apparently more than 2500! Certainly their migration pattern does not match that of the McAteers. We have been told by some McAtees that their original name was McAteer, but that may not be true for the majority. We recently heard the theory that the McAtees come from the McGuintys, which is very appealing, but there are only 21 McGuinty listings in the US, 29 in Canada, and we could only find one in the UK. Not nearly enough to account for the raw numbers in the US. If there is any truth to this theory, it would have to be vice versa. We have a lot to learn about the mysterious McAtees before arriving at any conclusions. Can you help us?
Are the McAtees simply a southern branch of the same clan; were they just unusually learned or wise McAteers; or are they a completely separate family? Well, we don't know - and neither does anyone else! We are presently working together with our McAtee cousins, and will carry on until either new evidence appears, or they themselves pronounce on the matter.
McENTEE:
Niamh McEntee wrote in to point out that there are lots of McEntees in
Ulster - especially in Counties Fermanagh and Monaghan. We have not
been able to do a proper study yet, but it seems there are a lot of
McEntees everywhere, although they number less than McAteers in Canada.
We tend to think McEntee relates to McAtee the same way McEntire relates to McAteer (variant spellings). It seems likely that McEntee comes from the Gaelic "Mhac an t'Saoi" or "Son of the Sage.' More on this subject later.
McENTEER:
A truly rare name, non-existent in the U.K. and Northern Ireland. There
are only three listings in Canada, but there may be as many as a hundred
in the U.S. We are told the McEnteers come from McAteers in County Donegal.
It may be worth noting that "McEnteer" is a homophone of "Mhac an t'Saoir." Of all the McAteer variants it is the closest to the old Gaelic pronunciation. The question is, why aren't we all McEnteers?
We received a letter a few years back asking why it was that "McAteer" is often pronounced "mac-en-teer" by people outside the clan. I remember having the same problem in a particularly Irish part of the country here. The local folk just could not manage "McAteer" without putting "-en-" in the middle. Could that be a folk memory, carried on from the old country?
McENTIRE:
Looking at the Tithe Applotment books, and the Griffiths Valuations (some
thirty years later), we see Mc Entires turn into Mc Ateers, or M'ateers
for no obvious reason. We have tried several different theories, none of
which has yet been proven.
Theory #1: Some people knew how to spell, and insisted on a given spelling.
Theory #2: Census takers used different spellings to distinguish between pre-Plantation Scottish Catholic gallowglass Mhac an t'Saoirs, Plantation Scottish Protestant Mhac an t'Saoirs, and native Irish Catholic Mhac an t'Saoirs.
Theory #3: When asked, different families pronounced their names different ways, and the spellings reflect the differences.
Theory #4: Different census takers had their own preferred spellings for Mhac an t'Saoir.
Whatever the answer, the application of the rules was certainly inconsistent. As yet we have found no way to separate the three names mentioned above.
McINTEER:
William McAteer of Glenone arrived in New Zealand before the turn of the century
and went to work for the railroad. They misspelt his name in the company records
and when he went to cash his first pay cheque, the bank would not accept his real
name! It was that or starve, so they have been the McInteers ever since. Found
only in New Zealand.
McINTYRE:
A Mrs. McAteer in Canada told us about her husband's brothers who
emigrated from Ulster to Scotland around 1920 - 1930, where they all
became McIntyres, which name they kept when later emigrating to the
U.S. via New York. Similar stories have been received from other
McIntyres and McEntires.
It may be worth noting that the letters "E" and "I" are subject to confusion between French and English. It is believable, but unproven, that McEntyres arriving at Quebec could have been recorded as McIntyres. Many Irish arrived via Quebec, and then headed south into the USA. Americans who cannot find the US port of entry for their Irish ancestors might do well to check Quebec records.
McTYRE:
This may well be an American name. We could only find the name
mentioned once in U.K. & N. Ireland listings, and that was for an
address in Dundee. Nearly all the McTyres in North America are in
the U.S., which is not typical of Northern Irish names. We talked to
some McTyres. Those in the northern U.S. were either unsure or their
history, or thought they were of Scottish descent. We received a
charming letter from a Mrs. McTyre in the southern U.S., who explained
that her heritage was largely African-American, and so she felt there
was no basis for including her, Irish or not.
METEER, METTEER:
Some Meteers thought they were Irish, but one gentleman explained that
although his family had come through Ireland, they might be of German
descent, because of a similarity to the German name "Meter". We looked
for Meteers in the U.K. and Northern Ireland (we found only three, one of
which was on the Isle of Wight), and in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
We did find a few Meters in Germany, along with Polmateers, Palmateers, etc.,
but alas, no Meteers.
Because there are over a hundred Meteers in North America (more of them than
there are 'Meters" in Germany), and none in Ireland, we believe that "Meteer"
may be a New World variant of Mateer.
TEER, TEAR, TIER:
Teers are rare, but there are 53 listed in the U.K. and Northern
Ireland. Most of the addresses found were in England, except for a
few in Scotland. There were 528 Tears and 1278 Tiers listed as well.
Samples of 30 listings from each of these surnames showed one Scottish
address, and the rest English. It is hard to resist the idea that these
three names are related to each other in the same way as are the McTeers,
McTears, and McTiers. However, the distribution is so heavily English,
it might either be an English name, or the English branch of a family
derived from the MacIntyres in Scotland. These three names alone greatly
outnumber all the families of our clan in the old country.
TYRE:
The Tyres are usually listed as belonging to the Irish clan, but
of those listed in the U.K. and Northern Ireland, of which there
were 961, many were in Scotland, and more in England, but very few
in Ireland. There are 509 Tyre listings in New Zealand, compared to
a total of 38 for our main clan names. Such a migration pattern is
more typical of an English family, than of the Scots or Irish.
It thus seems likely that the Tyres are either an English family or
the English branch of a Scottish family.
To make use of the figures, compare the ratios between surnames in the U.K and Northern Ireland with similar ratios elsewhere. That will give you some idea what happens to surnames during immigration. Generally the McAteer share creeps down from a figure of 57.9% for the U.K & N.I., to a low of 35.9% for Australia, while the McTeers and Mateers, and their variants, increase. This suggests that some McTeers and Mateers may be descended from McAteers, which we have found to be true, in talking to various McTeers and Mateers.
One figure stands out for its constancy. Surnames ending in "teer" vary from 72% in the U.K. & N.I. to 68.4% in Canada. No other figure is so invariant. Recent figures for Australia put this figure at 59%, so Australia is not in the same range. Australia also has the greatest percentage of 'tier surnames, at 26.5%. The constancy of the 'teer figures clearly suggest McAteers became McTeers or Mateers, but then, whence came the Canadian peak in Matiers? Perhaps the best candidate would be the McTears of the U.K. & N.I., who fall 9.7 percentage points in the crossing. We would be interested to hear from people whose name has changed this way, especially if there is any evidence that 'tears tended to become 'tiers.
There is a similar peak in the U.S., where the McTiers go from 2% in the U.K & N.I., to 19.3%. In the same journey the McTears fall from 16.9% of the total, to 4%. New Zealand figures are quite low, and so less "statistically significant". It looks as though New Zealand was not a major target of Ulster emigration.
To get an idea of our relative position, note that there were over
ten million listings in Canada, of which fewer than 300 belong to our clan.
That figure does not even show as a percentage!
Northern
Ireland
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
000 or 00.0%
02 or 0.5%
04 or 00.9%
006 or 01.4%
'teer
316 or 75.2%
00 or 00.0%
60 or 14.3%
376 or 89.5%
'tier
000 or 00.0%
04 or 00.9%
34 or 08.1%
038 or 09.0%
totals
316 or 75.2%
06 or 01.4%
98 or 23.3%
420 or 100%
United
Kingdom
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
010 or 02.3%
75 or 16.9%
24 or 05.4%
109 or 24.5%
'teer
257 or 57.9%
33 or 07.4%
30 or 06.8%
320 or 72.0%
'tier
000 or 00.0%
09 or 02.0%
06 or 01.4%
015 or 03.4%
totals
267 or 60.1%
117 or 26.4%
60 or 13.5%
444 or 100%
Australia.
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
03 or 02.6%
08 or 06.8%
06 or 05.1%
017 or 14.5%
'teer
42 or 35.9%
02 or 01.7%
25 or 21.4%
069 or 59.0%
'tier
00 or 00.0%
28 or 23.9%
03 or 02.6%
031 or 26.5%
totals
45 or 38.5%
38 or 32.5%
34 or 29.1%
117 or 100%
Canada.
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
001 or 00.4%
18 or 07.2%
14 or 05.6%
033 or 13.3%
'teer
110 or 44.2%
44 or 17.6%
23 or 09.2%
177 or 71.1%
'tier
000 or 00.0%
07 or 02.8%
32 or 12.9%
039 or 15.7%
totals
111 or 44.6%
69 or 27.7%
69 or 27.7%
249 or 100%
Irish Republic.
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
'teer
70 or 90.9%
01 or 01.3%
06 or 07.8%
77 or 100.0%
'tier
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
00 or 00.0%
totals
70 or 90.9%
01 or 01.3%
06 or 07.8%
77 or 100.0%
New Zealand.
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
06 or 15.8%
02 or 05.3%
01 or 02.6%
09 or 23.7%
'teer
18 or 47.4%
00 or 00.0%
08 or 21.1%
26 or 68.4%
'tier
00 or 00.0%
01 or 02.6%
02 or 05.3%
03 or 07.9%
totals
24 or 63.2%
03 or 07.9%
11 or 28.9%
38 or 100%
United States.
McA'
Mc'
Ma'
totals
'tear
002 or 00.0%
090 or 04.0%
003 or 00.0%
0095 or 04.3%
'teer
816 or 36.9%
208 or 09.4%
564 or 25.5%
1588 or 71.8%
'tier
000 or 00.0%
426 or 19.3%
102 or 04.6%
0528 or 23.9%
totals
818 or 37.0%
724 or 32.7%
669 or 30.3%
2211 or 100%
Adams (1960, p-325) in his book on "The Clans, Septs and Regiments, of the Scottish Highlands", in discussing Clan Macintyre Septs, states under MacTear: "Some Scots Mactears and Irish Mac-a-tears are really Macintyres.
Reaney (1958, p-210) in "A Dictionary of British Surnames" under Macintyre lists: "McEntire, McAteer, McTear".
MacLysaght (1960, p-23) in his work on "Irish Families" has this to say:
MacAteer, MacIntyre, Carpenter, Freeman. The Gaelic surname Mac-an-t-Saoir belongs both to Ireland and Scotland. In Scotland, it is always MacIntyre. In Ireland, the MacIntyres slightly outnumber the MacAteers, but a number of the former are Ulstermen of Scottish extraction. Taken together they are estimated in population statistics to number some 4,500 persons in Ireland; practically all the MacAteers are in Ulster (Armagh, Antrim and Donegal), while the MacIntyres are less concentrated in area, though chiefly in Ulster, with a considerable number also in Co. Sligo. Ballymacateer is a place near Lurgan [Co. Armagh] ............. MacAteer, or MacIntyre, is one of those names which have been subjected to anglicization by translation. Saor is the Irish Gaelic word for a certain type of tradesman such as a mason or a carpenter. The name has never become Mason, but Carpenter was fairly widely adopted as a synonym, so that the surname Carpenter in Ireland is often not English in origin but MacAteer in disguise. Similarly, since Saor also has the secondary meaning of free, the English surname Freeman sometimes hides a MacAteer origin.
George F. Black (1965) in his book on the "Surnames of Scotland" gives the following information:
MACTEAR, Macteir, Mactier. Shortened forms of MacIntyre, q.v. Mactyr, a priest in Iona, is in record in 1372. John Makter in Pennyghame was convicted of stouthreif; 1513 (Trials, 1, p.92), and another John McTeir was tenant in Moymore, Eynnaide, 1539 (ER, XVII, p.672). Andro Makteir was `servant to the maister clerk' in 1546 (ALHT., VIII, p. 488). John McTeyr, notary in Prestwick, 1551, may be John McTer who was made burgess in 1559 (Prestwick, p.12., 61). Gilbert Maktyre had sasine of land in Bute in 1564 (ER., XIX, p.533) and another Gilbert Mactyre was portioner of Ballintail there in 1615 (Retours, Bute, 21). Catherine M'Teir was `demit of witchcraft' in Dundonald, Ayrshire, 1632 (Paterson, I, p.425), and John McTyre, tailor in Bute, was charmed by a witch for `ane sore shoulder', 1662 (HP., III, p.6). John M'Tire, exiled Covenanter from parish of Kirkmichael, drowned off Orkney, 1679 (Hanna, II, p.253). McTere, McTlre, Mteir.
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