The McAnirlin Surname:
The McAnirlin surname has proven to be very rare, and many times a challenge to research. As I write this, there are only 7 persons in the world that have the “original” spelling.
The purpose of this is to document the surname and the variations to the extent that they have been researched, before the name becomes extinct. At least one variation of this name has disappeared in the last 50 years.
My own fascination with the history of my last name comes from my father. I can remember him returning from trips, saying that he could not find any relatives in the phonebooks. I also grew up in the habit of checking phonebooks, and later on the Internet. I am the only person that I know that can type in my surname into an internet search engine, and know all of the entries that come up.
The McAnirlin name is a difficult one. This is evident at the amount of mail that I receive that has various spellings of the name. The name is pronounced:
MACK–AN–EARL–LYNN
With the name having the difficulties that it has in the present day with pronunciation and spelling, it is not difficult to imagine what it must have been like for my ancestors back around 1850 when entering this country. Below are listed some of the variations that I have found from that time period into the early 1900’s:
McAnistan
McNarlin
McAnarlin
McAnerleen
McNurlin
McNerlin