The McCrae surname and its variations

I have been studying the McCrae variations and without getting sidetracked on to "K's and Y's" and others the variations work out as follows.

MAC
rae, rea, ree, rie, ra, re.

MACC
rae, rea, ree, rie, ra, re.

MC
rae, rea, ree, rie, ra, re.

MCC
rae, rea, ree, rie, ra, re.

As you can see there are four main prefixes and six variations to each group. This gives a total of twenty four different ways of spelling McCrae.

A good many of the McCrae's (and all variations) came in the 1600's from Ireland through the Solway ports and moved up through Scotland from the south to-wards Ayrshire and other Scottish counties.
With the Gaelic root of RA or RATH we find MACRATH. In Lowland Scotland we find the prefix CC and McCrae the Gaelic root was lost.
So on average the Highlanders used MACCRAE, for Ayrshire and the lowlands etc the McCrae was in use. The American version came as MCCREA and as usual there was an exception to every rule.

Peter McCrae