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My last name is McAnulty. There are a variety of pronunciations such as Mick-Uh-Nulty, Mick-Nulty, and Mack-Uh-Nulty, which is how I was raised to pronounce it. The family pronunciation and mumbles of something about Scots-Irish as opposed to the Irish pronunciation explained this away to me as a child. (I didn't sign up to be born with this surname. I've had it all my life, so this is a kind of funny special interest to me.)

My grandfather would often write the name McAnulty with the c small and raised with an underscore. It's not merely decorative: it contains and explains the pronunciation, as Mc with the underscore is an abbreviation of Mac, hence the alphabetization of Mc between Mab and Mad in some older alphabetization systems.

Relevant links that have influenced my understanding:

I'd like to produce this raised c with an underscore in LaTeX, but you can probably easily imagine and understand that, having grown up with this name and having seen it with the raised c with underscore in older handwriting and signs, I have particular aesthetic opinions about how the line under the c should look and the overall shape of the surname.

I've produced this:

no underline using this code:

{\LARGE\scheader \textsc{dan m{\large\raisebox{0.35ex}{{\underline{\smash{c}}}}}{\kern 0.05pc a}nulty}}

and this:

with underline using this:

{\LARGE\scheader \textsc{dan m{\large\raisebox{0.30ex}{c}}anulty}}

Neither quite match what I picture. The example images below depict the underline as more narrow than the letter, and ideally its right side should match up with the c's right-hand side. How I envision the correct way to raise and underline this c include:

c with underline

c with underline in sign

mccormick logo

While I can control the height and size of the c with my current code, and using the soul library I could control the closeness and thickness of the underline (see the soul library example), I have not yet found a good means to control the width of the line under the letter.

I believe the underscore is called a Macron below.

Does anybody have good recommendations for the right way to size up the underline to achieve these aesthetic ends in this situation?

I will appreciate any responses, thoughts, or suggestions.

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8
  • 7
    Interesting. As a non-Scot, non-British, non-American, ... I was raised in the belief that Mc is an abbreviation for mac and never tried to pronounce mc differently from mac. This was re-enforced with the advent of McDonalds everywhere, also pronounced as Mac... But apparently there are more choices for English-speaking natives.
    – gernot
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 10:43
  • 5
    Quite often, in the states, people pronounce it Mick-Donalds, I think it's not a syllable that most americans give much thought to, and historically it is a bit unclear I think. That's probably part of why I got so interested in this macron-below idea, it's something I remember clearly from growing up, and I think it be the only valid clue that an outside observer might get that could indicate a preference between Mac vs Mick. Again, for me, it's never been a big deal, but if I have a means to write out the correct pronunciation of my own name, I ought to make an effort to use it, I figure.
    – Dan McAnulty
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 10:53
  • 2
    Because the pronunciation is affected by stress (as well as regional/accent effects), this is quite an interesting topic. It's been discussed in some depth at english.se: When does the name prefix “Mc” take stress?.
    – Chris H
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 12:38
  • 1
    @HagenvonEitzen In my experience (Northeastern US), people pronounce it "MACKintosh", or just call them "MACKs". But I'd also note that the computer line is written "Macintosh". The variety of apples (the fruit) is written "McIntosh", but pronounced the same way.
    – Joshua Taylor
    Commented Apr 11, 2017 at 13:36
  • 1
    I can't cite chapter and verse, only local usage, but I've always taken there to be essentially free variation between ‘Mac[Dd]onald’, ‘Mc[Dd]onald’ and even (though this is now rare) ‘M’[Dd]onald’, with ‘M^cDonald’ being only a stylistic/typographic variation. People will tend to write their own family name in a consistent way, but there's no general rule. When alphabetising, such surnames are written in the preferred way, but alphabetised as if each of them started the same way: ‘mac’. If you're gaelic and male, however, then I believe the only possibility is ‘Mac Donald’ (ie, two words).
    – Norman Gray
    Commented Apr 11, 2017 at 18:57

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
46

You can use a trick for discovering the script size. The box is raised by the difference of the height of the M and the height of the (reduced) c.

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\Mc}{}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\Mc}{%
  M%
  \raisebox{\dimexpr\fontcharht\font`M-\height}{%
    \check@mathfonts\fontsize{\sf@size}{0}\selectfont
    \underline{c}%
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\Mc Anulty

\Large\Mc Anulty

\end{document}

enter image description here

Here is the output for

\textsc{\Mc Anulty}

enter image description here

An extended version where

  1. the underline is slightly shorter
  2. the macro also works with \MakeUppercase
\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\DeclareRobustCommand{\Mc}{\Mcx{c}}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\MC}{\Mcx{\textsc{c}}}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\Mcx}[1]{%
  M%
  \raisebox{\dimexpr\fontcharht\font`M-\height}{%
    \check@mathfonts\fontsize{\sf@size}{0}\selectfont
    \kern.1ex\underline{\kern-.1ex #1\kern-.1ex}\kern.1ex
  }%
}
\expandafter\def\expandafter\@uclclist\expandafter{%
  \@uclclist\Mc\MC
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\Mc Anulty \textsc{\Mc Anulty} \MakeUppercase{\Mc Anulty}

\Large \Mc Anulty

\end{document}

Extended

Yet another version with ulem (I can't recommend soul for this application).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}

\makeatletter
\DeclareRobustCommand{\Mc}{%
  M%
  \raisebox{\depth}{%
    \check@mathfonts\fontsize{\sf@size}{\sf@size}\selectfont
    \kern.3ex \uline{\kern-.3ex C\kern-.2ex}\kern.2ex
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\Mc Anulty \textsc{\Mc Anulty} \MakeUppercase{\Mc Anulty}

\Large \Mc Anulty

\end{document}

enter image description here

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7
32

The salient points of this approach

  1. The c is top aligned to the height of the M, while the underscore sits on the baseline (this was apparent in the OP's provided McCormick image)

  2. The thickness of the underbar can be provided as an optional parameter

  3. I kept the small c at the nominal size, but changing the 1 in the \scalebox could alter that to suit.

  4. I made the width of the underscore 70% of the c width. I also \kerned the underscore slightly to the right, to accommodate the asymmetric sidebearings of the letter c.

  5. The \Mc macro will change to suit the current font size and style.

Here is the MWE (optional argument employed on the 2nd instance).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine,graphicx}
\newcommand\Mc[1][.17ex]{%
  \setbox0=\hbox{\scalebox{1}{c}}%
  \setbox2=\hbox{M}%
  M\stackengine{0pt}{\kern.07\wd0\rule{.7\wd0}{#1}}{\belowbaseline[-\ht2]{\copy0}}%
    {O}{c}{F}{F}{L}%
}

\begin{document}
\Mc CORMICK

\LARGE\Mc[.13ex]CORMICK

\sffamily

\Mc CORMICK

\normalsize \Mc CORMICK
\end{document}

enter image description here

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

Here, the underscore does not sit on the baseline, but at a prescribed gap below the c. Other changes are the size of the c has been reduced to 70%; the thickness of the underscore reduced to .13ex; the optional argument specifies the gap between c and underscore (applied in the 2nd instance)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine,graphicx}
\newcommand\Mc[1][.13ex]{%
  \setbox0=\hbox{\scalebox{.7}{c}}%
  \setbox2=\hbox{M}%
  M\stackengine{\dimexpr\ht0-\ht2+#1}{\belowbaseline[-\ht2]{\copy0}}%
    {\kern.07\wd0\rule[-.13ex]{.7\wd0}{.13ex}}%
    {U}{c}{F}{F}{L}%
}

\begin{document}
\Mc CORMICK

\LARGE\Mc[.3ex]CORMICK

\sffamily

\Mc CORMICK

\normalsize \Mc CORMICK
\end{document}

enter image description here

APPROACH 3

This attempts to achieve the edit of the OP, in which the height of the c is not set to the top of the M, but perhaps a serif thickness below the top.

So what I do is make the thickness of the underscore the value of the optional argument (default .12ex, which should be set to the serif thickness for a serif font, or the stroke thickness for a sans serif font), and also decline the C from the top of the line by the same amount. Further, I use a capital, rather than lowercase C, unlike my earlier excursions. Lastly, I have revised the width of the underscore based on the framing lines provided by the OP in the close-up image. In addition to right-aligning the underscore, I estimated the sidebearings of the C to be 7% of the letter width, and therefore made the width of the underscore equal to 86% of the C width (accounting for the sidebearings) minus the serif width provided as the optional argument.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine,graphicx}
\newcommand\Mc[1][.12ex]{%
  \setbox0=\hbox{\scalebox{.7}{C}}%
  \setbox2=\hbox{M}%
  M\stackengine{0pt}{\rule{\dimexpr.86\wd0-#1}{#1}\kern.07\wd0}%
    {\belowbaseline[\dimexpr-\ht2+#1]{\copy0}}%
    {O}{r}{F}{F}{L}%
}

\begin{document}
\Mc[.08ex]CORMICK

\LARGE\Mc[.08ex]CORMICK

\sffamily

\Mc CORMICK

\normalsize \Mc CORMICK
\end{document}

enter image description here

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6
  • The result looks nice and the OP finally decide, but I question the assumption that the underscore sits on the baseline (this was apparent in the OP's provided images). For me it is quite apparent from the images that the underscore does not sit on the baseline. In fact, when looking at other abbreviations the underscore is rather underlining the c.
    – gernot
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 10:57
  • I think both methods are potentially important to have access to in different situations, like if you look at this one: i.sstatic.net/hdKqQ.png It's clearly on the baseline, but this one: i.sstatic.net/l3MYb.jpg they're floating it up. I remember my family more often floating the underscore off the baseline, but I can also admire the aesthetic choice of keeping it low and even. It seems to me that both methods could be appropriate to users of this diacritical mark, so I hoped both methods would be illustrated if possible. I think the two responders have done.
    – Dan McAnulty
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 10:59
  • @gernot On the McMaster photograph, I think you are right, but on the McCormick logo, I do think it sits there.
    – Steven B. Segletes
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 11:00
  • 1
    You are right regarding McCormick, but I wouldn't trust a logo when it comes to typography.
    – gernot
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 11:02
  • @DanMcAnulty See my approach #3, which tries to address your later edit, depicting the framing lines.
    – Steven B. Segletes
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 11:38
13

A simple solution with \textsuperscriptand soulutf8. I define a \Mc command with one optional argument for the height adjustment of the c superscript, and a mandatory argument, the variable part of the name.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{soulutf8}
\newcommand\Mc[2][-0.6\depth]{\setul{0.25ex}{0.08ex}\setuloverlap{-0.08em}M\textsuperscript{\raisebox{#1}{\ul{c}}}#2}

\begin{document}

{\LARGE\textsc{dan \Mc{Anulty}}} \vspace{1cm}

{\normalsize\textsc{dan \Mc[0pt]{Anulty}}}

\end{document}

enter image description here

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0

One for ConTeXt users:

%\setupbodyfont[pagella]
%\setupbodyfont[scholas]
\setupbodyfont[termes]

\starttext
  \newbox\MacMBox
  \setbox\MacMBox\hbox{M}
  \newbox\MacCBox
  \setbox\MacCBox\hbox{c}
  \newbox\MacKernBox
  \setbox\MacKernBox\hbox{\inframed[offset=\zeropoint, width=fit]{Mc}}

  \def\MacDelta{\dimexpr\wd\MacKernBox-\wd\MacMBox-\wd\MacCBox\relax}
  \def\MacUWidth{\dimexpr\wd\MacCBox-.75\MacDelta\relax}
  \def\MacRule{\vrule width \MacUWidth height .05em depth \zeropoint \relax}
  \def\MacKern{\dimexpr\wd\MacKernBox-\wd\MacMBox-\wd\MacCBox\relax}

  \def\Mac{%
    M{%
      \dontleavehmode{\raisebox{\dimexpr\ht\MacMBox-\ht\MacCBox}\hbox{c}}%
      \kern-1.04\MacUWidth
      \MacRule
      \kern.08\MacUWidth
    }%
  }

  \scale[scale=5000]{\Mac Anulty}
  \Mac Anulty
\stoptext

C with Macron

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