Meingeis is the original spelling of my surname, Menzies. In the Red and White book (the book) of Menzies, there is an explanation for the change in spelling over time. It is said that the letter g in the original celtic spelling was gradually changed to the modern z. According to “the book”, the name Menzies can be found in records during the time of the 40th Menzies in descent, Lord Robert Menzies, the Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland (1177 – 1266), spelt in at least 21 different ways. During this time, the letter G was first used and the name pronounced and spelt closest to the current Scottish. It appears that the Celtic g which is written looking like a lower case z (with a tail) may have been mistaken for the letter z. It became a corrupt version of the name and remained, becoming a fixed rule about the middle of the 19th century.
The name Menzies is correctly pronounced “mengyeis” or “mengies” in Perthshire, the native county of Menzies, today.
