2,380 Global MCTAGGART Family Members

MCTAGGART Family History

This long-established surname, normally recorded in the spellinfs of MacTaggart, McTaggart, and Taggart, is widespread throughout Scotland and Ulster. It is an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic "Mac an tsagairt", son of the priest, from "Mac", son of, and "tsagairt", the genitive of "sagart", the priest. The marriage of clerics in minor orders was permissible, but the marriage of priests had been declared illegal and invalid in the 12th Century, nevertheless the practice continued, though in some instances, the name may have been used to denote someone suspected of being the son of a priest.