Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Leòid, a patronymic from a Gaelic form of the Old Norse personal name Ljótr ‘ugly’.
- One prominent bearer of this prominent Scottish name, Alexander McLeod (1774–1833), a Reformed Presbyterian clergyman, author, and editor, emigrated to the U.S. in 1792 from the island of Mull in the Hebrides. He taught Greek at Schenectady, NY, and was a pastor in New York City after 1800.