McQuay name variants

The vast majority of records relating to my ancestors have the same spelling of the surname as I have inherited: M, c, capital Q, u, a, y.  When handwritten, the letter 'c' was traditionally raised up to the top of the capital 'M' and the cursive script produced a curly letter 'Q' - features which are unfamiliar in most modern fonts and documents of the digital age.

As we have seen from some of the records relating to my own great-grandfather, there have been instances of Maquay being written with a letter 'a' instead of a the letter 'c'.  I have also seen lower case letter 'q' and not surprisingly 'Mac' with an extra letter 'a' in the middle of the 'Mc'.

I remember being shocked to discover that some computer search tools did not match "McQuay" and "Mc Quay".  To get comprehensive results it was necessary to do additional searches with the "Mc" syllable as a separate word, then the same again with "Mac".  Even now some databases have "Quay" as the surname and "Mc" as a middle name or as a two word surname that does not appear in search results for "McQuay".

When someone has read an original document and transcribed (copied) the surname they may have introduced a variation which is really an error.  This can be because the original ink is very faint, or the handwriting is unclear.

• Typically the letter 'c' and a round, single-storey letter 'a' can be misread for one another, or can be copied out as 'o', 'e' or even 'r'.
• Depending on the presence, or absence, and shape of a flourish below the line, the letters 'q ' or 'y ' can be mistaken for an opentail 'g'.
• If there is more of a flourish than usual at the start of the letter 'u' then it may be transcribed as 'w' or confused with a cursive 'n'.
• Or a gesture at the end of the name can be mistaken for an extra letter, such as an 'e'.

Sometimes a variation is rare and easy to spot as one-off error.  It can be the case that a particular spelling appears in multiple records for a period of time but is in the minority compared to all the other places in which a person's name is recorded as expected.  I have also seen the surname written out somewhat phonetically, as it sounds: Mackway or McWhae.  If the name recorded corresponds to a real, more common surname then it is tricky to determine with confidence whether a particular record is related or unrelated.

The list below shows a range of the surname variations found on McQuay related records, transcriptions and indexes, so far:

McQuay Mcquay MacQuay Macquay Mc Quay Mc quay Mac Quay Mac quay

Maquay

McQueay MacQueay McQucay MacQucay
McQuaye MacQuaye
McQuary
McQua

MacGuay
Mcouay Macouay
Mcquag Maquag
Mequay
Meguay
Megnay
Marguay
Maguay
Magway
Magnay
Maqusy

McKway Mackway
McWhae MacWhae McWhac MacWhac McWhar
McWha MacWha
McWade MacWade

Quay

Stockwell (adoption)
Noblett (adoption)
Haigh (middle name and alternative surname)