My name is easily misspelled. Alan can be Allen, or Allan or even Alain and still be legit. McLeod can be MacLeod. It can also be M'Leod as it was in my grandparents' time. It can also be butchered as McCloud or MacLoud. My new account with a BCE regional telco called Bell, however, has granted me a name I have never known before - "A Mc>Leod."
The lack of a period after the "A" makes it clear to be not a contraction or initial so it can only be the indefinite article. One of a set of roughly similar things. But what sort of a thing?
- I am Mc "is greater than" Leod mathematically.
- Linguistically, I am Mc "has been replaced by (historically)" Leod.
- To a cartographic symbologist, I am Mc "east side of lock on a north-south canal" Leod
- In HTML I am Mc "the end of something" Leod
Given that "Mc" means "son of" in Gaelic and Leod is "the many who turns into a bear in battle" in Norse, it's all a bit confusing. I sure hope the good folks at Bell have a cartographical symbologist on the help desk...if that's who I'm going to need to speak with. They may want to get one. We may be many.