Scottish Names, Surnames Names

English speaking countries

Transferred use of the Scottish surname.

The surname comes from a place name on the River Tweed, and mean "Maccus's stream" in Old English.

Maccus is the Latin form of the name which might have been Manus or Mack.

According to Scottish tradition, Maccus, the son of Unwin or Undweyn, was a Saxon lord, who obtained a salmon pool on the river Tweed near Kelso Bridge. The pool was then called Maccus's wiel (from the Old English "wael" or stream). The adjacent lands got the name, and the descendants of Maccus became known as, "de" Maccuswel, and, subsequently, became the powerful Maxwell family of Dumfriesshire and Galloway.

Some Scottish Maxwells claim that they descend from a King Maccus of the Isle of Man.

Maxwell House is a brand of coffee.