The following article, published in 1924, details the origin of the name MacArthur. There appears to have been a series of these articles and I will try and get them all posted for those researching family names.
History of Your Name: MacArthur
Though in later history the MacArthurs became a separate and distinct clan, and a comparatively small one, they were more anciently the senior branch of the more powerful and numerous Campbells.
The origin of the name MacArthur is quite obvious. It is merely the prefixing of the Gaelic “mac” signifying “descendants of” or “followers of,” to the given name of Arthur.
There is a curious legend, however, concerning the origin of the name, and though there is no documentary evidence today to prove conclusively the truth of it, yet it sounds plausible.
The tradition of the Clan MacArthur is that it was founded by no less a person than “Smervie Mor,” the son of the famous King Arthur of British legend, who ruled the Britons in the period between the evacuation of England by the Romans and the coming of the Angles and the Saxons. The same tradition exists among the Campbells, who name their badge “Lus mhic righ Bhreatainn” (“plant of the son of the King of Britain”; that is, wild thyme).
It is not impossible that the Clan Campbell should have been driven up into Scotland by the advance of the Saxons. There are other instances in the highlands, notably that of the Galbraiths.
Thus, if your name is MacArthur, or MacCarter, or MacArtair, or MacArter, or just plain Arthur, and your ancestry is Highland Scottish, there is just a bare chance that you are descended from the famous King Arthur of pre-Saxon days or some of his followers.
Source: Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 31 Dec. 1924.
