Mc-

Mac-, Mc-

In English dictionaries and lists of names, it is usual to order all names spelt with these prefixes as if they were spelt Mac-, so that a user who is unsure of the spelling does not have a lengthy search. A typical sequence is therefore Maccabees, McCarthyism, mace, macle, McNaughten rules, macramé. In American practice, however, it is more usual to place names beginning with Mc- at their literal place in the sequence, i.e. after words in mac- and any in mb-, so that McCarthy might appear more than twenty pages further on than Macdonald.