McCoy is of Irish, Scottish, and Manx origins. It is a developed form of the Old Gaelic Mac Aodha, meaning the son of Fire, originally the name of a Celtic pagan god. The McCoys came to Ireland as Gallowglass1, their home territory being the Isle of Man and the southern isles of Scotland such as Islay. The name dates to the late 11th Century and it is said that there are at least fifteen forms of the name.
McCoys trace their origin back to Scotland. The family was first found in Sutherland, where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D. Their origin there is possibly Lowland, but they had intermarried with the Highland Celtic strain, giving some a slight olive complexion and some dark or auburn hair. They were in general tall and lithe and handsome. They had a great deal of family pride and clannishness.
The McCoy Coat of Arms is a blue shield with a silver chevron, on which there are two daggers pointing at a buck's head, all between three silver bears' heads. The family motto "Manu forti" means "With a strong hand." The McCoys were in Scotland until around 1700 A.D. at which time they migrated to Ireland. In the early 1700s, the McCoys started to migrate to America, which was a British Colony at that time.
The earliest known ancestor is a Jacobite in Ireland named John McCoy, whom was the son of Alexander McCoy and Francis Katherine Sutherland, born in 1690, in Sutherland Shire, Scotland. The Jacobites were loyal supporters of the Stuart King, James II. It is believed that John migrated to Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, after a failed rebellion in 1715, which was to return King James II to the English throne. John worked as a mercenary for English Lord Berresford.
John married a woman with the last name of Martin. The family then migrated to America, traveling from Belfast, Antrim County, Ireland, to America in 1732. John's brothers, James and Daniel, may have come from Ireland with him. In 1737, he received a land grant in Charles County, Maryland, which was a 150-acre tract.
The first McCoy born in the United States was named John McCoy. He was born in South Carolina in 1748. He was a private in the South Carolina militia. In 1770, he married Catherine Sibley Capers. The couple had 16 children. John McCoy died in 1818 in Sumter, South Carolina.
1The Gallowglass were a class of elite mercenary warriors who were principally members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland and Scotland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century.