McBee
An Anglicized Scottish and Irish surname that most likely means “son of Beag” or “son of the little one.”
The #5,011 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 44,037 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McBee is a surname of Gaelic origin, with the prefix Mac meaning “son of.” The second element is usually taken to be Beag, a Gaelic word meaning “small” or “little,” so the name would originally have meant “son of the little one” or “son of Beag.” In some cases it may reflect a shortened or Anglicized form of a longer Gaelic surname, so the exact source can vary by family line.
History
The name appears in Anglicized forms in Scotland and Ireland, and later in North America, where spelling was often simplified to McBee. Like many Gaelic surnames, it could have developed independently in more than one place from similar-sounding originals. The modern distribution in the United States reflects later migration from the British Isles rather than one single founding family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Gaelic surnames were often reshaped by English spelling habits, families with the same McBee spelling may not all share exactly the same earliest origin.