Recorded in many spellings including MacIntyre, McIntyre, McAteer, McInteer, McAtear, McTear and others, is medieval Scottish. It is a development of the Old Gaelic Mac an tSaoir, meaning the son of the craftsman or mason. The Clan MacIntyre however had nothing to do with building, they were hereditary foresters to the Stewarts of Lorn, and later to the Campbells of Lorn. Glenoe (also written as Glencoe) near Bunawe, was the epi-centre of the sept. Early examp[les of recordings include Gillechrist M'Yntir, a witness at Rothesay, Buteshire, in 1490, whilst the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland record that in 1504 the ferry of Conane was leased to one Ferquhard McYnter. In 1506 Gildaw M'Katear had a crown grant of a third of Dunallirde estate, Buteshire, whilst from the church registers we have that on August 6th 1766, of John McIntyre christened at Burntisland, Fifeshire. A coat of arms granted to the M'Intyre family of Glencoe, has the blazon of a shield divided quarterly, a red eagle displayed, armed and langued sable, on first and fourth quarters, a galley, her sails furled sable, flags red, is depicted on the second quarter, and a red sinister hand couped fesseways, holding a cross crosslet fitchee sable, appears in the third quarter. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas Mac in tsair. This was dated 1268, during the reign of King Alexander 111rd of Scotland, 1249 - 1286. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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