McCutchen
An Anglicized Scottish and Irish surname meaning “son of Cutchen,” a pet form of a given name such as Cuthbert or a related medieval name.
The #7,975 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,468 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McCutchen is a surname built on the Gaelic patronymic prefix Mac, meaning “son of,” plus a personal-name element represented in English as Cutchen. That second element is generally understood as a diminutive or familiar form of a medieval given name such as Cuthbert, though the exact source could vary by family line. In English spelling, the name was often reshaped to fit local pronunciation, which is why forms with -chen, -chin, and similar endings appear.
History
The surname is found in Scots-Irish and Irish-American contexts, where Gaelic surnames were often Anglicized in a variety of spellings. As with many Mac surnames, the form could change from place to place and from record to record, producing related variants such as McCutcheon and McCutchan. In North America, the spelling McCutchen became established in some family lines while neighboring lines kept other forms.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
McCutchen is one of several surnames that look very “English” in spelling but preserve a Gaelic patronymic structure underneath.