McGraw
An anglicized Gaelic surname usually explained as “son of love” or “son of grace.”
The #1,668 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,285 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McGraw is generally treated as an anglicized Gaelic surname related to forms such as MacGrath and MacGragh. In the older dictionary tradition, it is commonly explained from Mac, “son,” plus a Gaelic element glossed as gradh/grath, meaning “love,” “affection,” “grace,” or “prosperity.” That yields the familiar sense “son of love” or, more loosely, “son of grace.”
History
The name appears in Irish and Scottish surname traditions under several spellings, especially MacGrath, MacGraw, Magraw, and Megraw. Nineteenth-century writers often grouped McGraw with MacGrath and treated it as a Gaelic family name of considerable antiquity. In the United States, McGraw became the standard English spelling for many bearers of these older forms.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes paraphrase McGraw very poetically as “son of love.”
From the historical record
“smith, Smithson. McGEATH and McGRAW. (Celtic or Gaelic.) From Gradh, love, fondness, virtue, prosperity. Mac and rath, the son of prosperity. McGREGOR. The descendants of G-regor, who was the son of Alpin, King of Scotland. A family of great antiquity,”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names