Many of them would’ve been invited to join the clan, in order to gain protection or forge an alliance. These families are known as “septs”. What is the largest clan in Scotland? Clan MacDonald of Clanranald is one of the biggest Highland clans. Descendants of Ranald, son of John, ...
English wordplant—and pronounced itcland.In Old Irish,clandwas used to mean not only "offshoot of a plant" but also "offspring," "family," and "clan." The wordclandwas carried to the area that is now Scotland when speakers of Old Irish gained power in the region in the late 400s...
but not all, of the 1,266 Cawleys of Ireland are believed to be descended from McCauleys who dropped the "Mac" prefix. Some of these Cawleys were in the five McAuley-rich counties, but the largest concentrations are in Sligo and Mayo, and probably descend from poorly-documented septs. ...