McQuade
An Irish surname, most often taken as an anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Uaid, meaning “son of Wat” or “son of Walter.”
The #7,513 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 69,694 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McQuade is an anglicized Irish surname usually linked to Gaelic Mac Uaid, a patronymic built from Mac, “son of,” and a personal name rendered in English as Wat or Walter. Older surname dictionaries sometimes tried other explanations, but the Irish patronymic derivation is the standard one. Related spellings such as MacQuaid and MacQuaid(e) reflect the same underlying Gaelic name.
History
The name is associated with Irish families and appears in several anglicized spellings in older records, including MacQuaid, MacQuaide, and MacQuade. In diaspora records, it often clusters with other Ulster-Irish surnames and was standardized in different ways by parish clerks and civil registrars. The surname is less common than many other Mac surnames but has remained in use in Ireland and North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers sometimes produced wildly different folk etymologies for McQuade, which is why old books can be entertainingly inconsistent on its meaning.
From the historical record
“Faire, a watcher, to watch, an overseer, Episcopus. McQUADE. Quad. Danish, a song, air, lay ; a species of nar- rative poetry among the ancient minstrels. The son of the Poet. McQUARIE or McGUAIRE. Son of Guaire or Godfrey. Guaire was son of Alpin, King of Scotland. McQUEEN. That is, McOwen, the son of Owen.…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names