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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Scottish and northern Irish : Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mac an Aba(dh) ‘son of the abbot’. In Scotland, monasteries often had hereditary lay abbots, who were not bound by rules of celibacy. The McNabs seem to have originated at the monastery of St. Faolan in Strathfillan.

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