# M'culloch or McCulloch?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2008, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314 "2008-12-02T07:24:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2008, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314/1 "2008-12-02T07:24:14Z")

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v. Maryland. Either is recognizable but which is more correct?\* In a choice of Findlaw v. Wikipedia I’d go with what Findlaw has, but I can’t actually figure out why it would be cited “M’culloch” although it is. But it’s cited more as “McCulloch” (which likely means “M’culloch” is correct).

Need answer Tuesday.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314/2 "2008-12-02T07:31:04Z")

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> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> I can’t actually figure out why it would be cited “M’culloch”

It’s just old-fashioned. The M-apostrophe form was used for both Mc and Mac in the old days (as in the [M’Naghten rule](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/M'Naghten_rule), which helped establish the insanity defense), giving the lie to the old canard that ‘Mc comes from Ireland and Mac from Scotland’: Our ancestors were never so fussy about spelling their names.

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314/3 "2008-12-02T14:27:56Z")

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Okay, that makes sense. I did not know that about the Mc/Mac names. Thanks!

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**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314/4 "2008-12-02T16:29:12Z")

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The M’ was especially used when lowercase was not available, as in some headlines: “M’CULLOCH RULING EXPECTED TODAY”

Ed

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mculloch-or-mcculloch/475314/5 "2008-12-03T03:55:45Z")

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also, you’ve got a double “c” there. although you could pronounce them separately, it’s natural to glide them into one “cuh” sound - and the spelling M’Cullouch shows that there’s a missing letter, just like other contractions with an apostrophe.