Is the last name McKinley of Irish origin?

McKinley is the Scottish Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic surname MacFionnalaigh. United States President and Ohio native, William McKinley, Jr. (1843-1901), was the son of William McKinley and Nancy Allison, who were of Scots-Irish and English ancestry. The McKinley's were descendants of a farmer from Conagher, Ballymoney, Antrim, Ulster.





You would need to do further research to determine if your McKinley's were of Presbyterian Scots-Irish (Ulster-Irish)* or Scottish descent. Of course, the Scots-Irish emigrated from Lowland Scotland to Ulster because they wanted to escape the exorbitant rack rents of Lowland Scotland during the seventeenth century.


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*Scots-Irish is an American term for the British Ulster-Irish.

Is the last name McKinley of Irish origin?
No - Scottish .MacKinlay or McKinley is the Gaelic form of Finlayson and before it was anglified was MacFhionnlaigh .Although Scottish it is found also in Antrim in Northern Ireland amongst the descendants of the " planters " who were given land to oust the indigenous families like the O'Neills. The name is found in Scotland back to the 16th century and was found mainly in Perthshire around Glen Lyon and in the western end of Strathearn ( Perthshire ) around Balquhidder ( where Rob Roy is buried ! )