Real Mackay/Real McCoy

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>In 2003 Sam Clements posted this:
>
> > From ancestry.com, I found a poem in the Waukesha(WI) Plaindealer,
> > February 7, 1871: page 1(I think), col. 3.  There are five stanzas.
> > Rather than print the entire poem, suffice it to say that the final
> > line in each stanza was "For he's no the real Sandy Mackay."
> >
> > The title of the poem was "THE REAL SANDY MACKAY*" At the conclusion
> > of the poem, the starred term was explained thusly:  <<An expression
> > used in some parts of Scotland, equivalent to saying, "it's not the
> > real thing.">>
>
>Sam's sensational discovery is actually the second earliest known
>occurrence of "real Mackay" or similar phrases, the earliest being an
>1856 mention of "A drappie [drop] o' the real MacKay" in a Scottish
>poem recorded by the Scottish National Dictionary.  The SND states
>that in 1870 the Edinburgh distillers, G. Mackay & Co. adopted this as
>an advertising slogan, but no documentation of that has ever been
>found.
>
>I have tried hard to figure out who "Sandy Mackay" might refer to, and
>have come up with something that is probably a total red herring but
>that I find intriguing.  Charles Kingsley's 1850 book, Alton Locke,
>Tailor and Poet, features a character named Sandy Mackaye, a
>bookseller modelled on Thomas Carlyle.  I find nothing in the book
>relating to "the real Sandy Mackaye," but I wonder, is it plausible
>that this book, a fairly important one in its time, could have been
>behind the reference in Sam's 1871 poem?  The timing is possible,
>although "used in some parts of Scotland" suggests more of an older
>folk origin and my theory would require the term migrating in six
>years from a literary reference to an alcoholic one.

The record suggests (per SND) that by 1870 "real Mackay" was already a
stock phrase. The SND has one speculation as to the ultimate origin
("reay" > "real" IIRC).

Why "Sandy"? One possibility is that the given name was appended
arbitrarily as an archetypical or stereotypical Scots name. Along with
"Angus" and "Fergus", "Sandy" has been used in jokes etc. as the name of a
Scot from auld lang syne. More specific alternatives are available,
including the above fictional character and also a few real Alexander
Mackays of the time.

-- Doug Wilson