The McDormand Name has undergone many changes over the years and now includes McDermand, MacDermand, MacDormand, McDormond, McDorman, Dormand & likely others.

It appears the first to arrive in North America were William McDormand and his wife Mary McIntyre.  To quote the book "The History of the County of Annapolis" by W A Calnek.  "William McDormand, from an ancient Ulster family of Scotch origin and good repute, removed with his wife and family from the valley of the Brandywine River to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia in 1761, under the auspices of Henry Evans, and occupied lot 9, about three miles from the town".  William and Mary brought with them their two sons William (unmarried at the time) and Robert and his wife Mary Cormac, together with their first four children (four more children were born to them after settling in Digby area).

Robert McDormand and Mary Cormac's  son Robert and his wife Mary Morrell moved to Ontario about 1811.  Their son Robert who married Rebecca Arnold, started in 1813 to call their children by the last name of "McDermand".  Another son of Robert McDormand & Mary Cormac was James who married Anna Rice and moved to Ontario about 1830.  Their last son Sydney Smith was also referred to by the last name of "McDermand".  It appears that most, but not all, of the family that moved to Ontario in the first half of the 1900th century eventually changed their last name to McDermand.

In 1883 Charles Cormack McDermand and Annie Dadson's first son William was referred to by the last name "MacDermand".  Oddly enough Charles & Annie's next three children are referred to by the last name McDermand.  William had two daughters who also spelt their last name MacDermand.

William McDormand and Lois Peters had ten children starting in 1841.  Several of their children spelt their last name "MacDormand".  Aside from this line some other McDormand's changed their last name to "MacDormand" starting early in the 20th century.  It has widely been suggested that the change to "Mac" was done in an effort to make the name appear more Scottish sounding.

Robert McDormand and Mary Cormac possibly (but not substantiated) had two additional children, a daughter Mary McDormand and a son Joseph McDormand.  If they were their children it is unclear why they would have moved from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia to the Colchester County area of Nova Scotia.  It is possible that Mary already knew her future husband as his family moved from the same area of Pennsylvania to Colchester County.  The connection of Mary and  Joseph to Robert McDormand and Mary Cormac as their parents is very weak.  It has also been reported that they came from Northern Ireland directly to Colchester Co., Nova Scotia.  In this case it is unclear if Mary was Joseph's sister or his Aunt.  Mary and Joseph were initially referred to by the last name of "McDormond".  This was confirmed by the tombstone of Joseph McDormond and family located in Glenholme, Colchester County, Nova Scotia.  Generally the name for the following generations was referred to as McDormand until about 1850 when James used the last name of "McDorman".  Both spellings continued to be used in subsequent generations of the Colchester County McDormand's with the spelling of McDorman becoming the predominant form.

Another variation of the name has recently come to light and that is John (Mc)Dorman(d) born about 1768 in Nova Scotia and was married to Jane Caldwell in Digby County, Nova Scotia.  They had three children named Jeremiah, John, Nancy.  What is interesting is that when they moved to Ontario in the early 1800's John dropped the "Mc" at the start of his name making it "Dormand".  John's children further shortened the name by dropping the "D" at the end making the name "Dorman".  It is reported that they were the first of the McDormand family to make the move to Ontario and three years later they were joined by John (Mc)Dormand's cousin Reverend William McDormand who by this time was spelling his last name McDermand.  To date we have been unable to determine who John's parents were.  Please e-mail me if you have any information about him.

The last name of "McDermond" seems to have first appeared in the Pennsylvania area in the 1700's and I suspect it is also somehow related to our family.

This page was most recently updated January 1, 2009.