McCloud
An Anglicized Scottish surname usually understood as a form of MacLeod.
The #2,313 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,562 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McCloud is generally treated as an English spelling of Gaelic MacLeod, meaning “son of Leod.” The historical sources you provided explicitly connect McCloud with MacLeod and describe it as a corruption or variant form. In other words, the name is not usually taken to derive from the English word cloud, even though the spelling invites that association.
History
The spelling McCloud appears in Anglicized records as a surname associated with Scottish Gaelic MacLeod lines. Nineteenth-century surname writers often grouped it with other Mac- names and treated it as a phonetic or orthographic variant rather than a distinct surname. In modern usage, McCloud and MacLeod may coexist as separate spellings, especially in diaspora records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century source notes that people named Cloud and McCloud were already being recorded in the United States, showing how quickly Gaelic surnames could become fixed in English-looking forms.
From the historical record
“CLOTHIER. See LEATHER. CLOUD. From the Gaelic name McCloud, a corruption of MacLeod. Hence perhaps the name Clout. CLOUT. See CLOUD. COAL, L q. COLE, from Nicol or Nichol. Cole is the appella-”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames