The ancestors of the first family to use the name McVail lived among the Pictish people of ancient
. The name McVail is derived from the
from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our McVail research.
Another 113 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1490 and 1533 are included under the topic Early McVail History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.The arts of spelling and translation were yet in their infancies when surnames began, so there are an enormous number of
spelling variations of the names in early Scottish records. This is a particular problem with Scottish names because of the numerous times a name might have been loosely translated to English from Gaelic and back. McVail has been spelled MacPhail, MacPhial, MacPhiel, MacFail, MacFall, MacFaul, MacVail, MacPhale, MacPail, MacPhaul, MacFale, Phail, Fayle and many more.