McBrayer
A Scottish or Irish-style surname likely built from the Gaelic prefix Mc/Mac plus a personal-name element now obscured by Anglicization.
The #9,421 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 89,440 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McBrayer is an Anglicized surname of Gaelic form, with Mc/Mac meaning "son of." The second element is not fully certain in surviving modern forms, but the name is generally treated as a patronymic created from an older Gaelic personal name that was later reshaped in English spelling. In practice, surnames of this type often emerged through phonetic spelling and local adaptation after Gaelic names were recorded in English-speaking areas.
History
The surname is most strongly associated with Scots-Irish and Scottish-descended families in North America, where many Gaelic surnames were simplified or respelled. McBrayer appears to belong to that broader pattern of Anglicized clan- or family-based names. Because the underlying Gaelic source is not securely established in the evidence available here, historical details should be treated cautiously.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Names beginning with Mc- or Mac- are often patronymic, but the later English spelling can make the original Gaelic root surprisingly hard to trace.