What's in a name? 

McGeever - Irish (Donegal): a variant of McIver
McIver - Scottish and Northern Irish: an anglicized form of  the Gaelic, Mac Íomhair, (son of Íomhair), Gaelic form of the old norse name Ivarr.

The McGeever surname is believed to have been derived from the old Norse name Ivarr. The origin is unknown. It became a given name in Scotland, Ireland and England before becoming a hereditary surname. In the 9th century, the fierce Vikings settled in the northern tip of Scotland. From this point, the McGeever name began.

Researchers discovered the origin of the McGeever name using the Viking Sagas, the Orkneyinga Sagas, the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, the Inquisito and translations of local manuscripts, parish records, baptismals and tax records.

The first record of the name McGeever was found in Dumbartonshire and the old Earldom of Lennox, centrally located in the Strathclyde region, presently the council areas of the west and east Dumbartonshire, where they settled from early times. The first records appeared on the early census roles taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

In ancient times it was not uncommon for a person to be born with one spelling of his name, married with another and yet another to appear on his headstone. Amongst the spelling recorded were MacIver, MacIvor, MacCure, Mac Iomhair (Gaelic), but this does not proclude other spellings, particularly those adopted in North America such as Gere.

The family name McGeever emerged as a Scottish clan or family in the Northern territory of Dumbarton where they were recorded as a family of great antiquity seated with manor and estates in that shire where Imhair MacIver was killed in Alclyde in 870, a friend of Olaf the white, King of Dublin. In 1292 the lands of MacIver became a part of Lorne. The ancient Viking clan acquired many lands in Perth and Galloway. Archibald MacIver was constable of Dundee in 1479 but in the middle of the 16th century they were intermarried with the Campbells of Glenurchy and lost many of the lands. They were restored on condition that the heirs took the name of Campbell. the clan from this point forward became one of the broken clans, their seat was at Asknish in Argyll. The clan's plant badges are bog myrtle and fir club moss.

In Ireland the Plantation of Ulster seeded many Scottish families who were granted lands previously owned by the Catholic Irish, mostly in the six nothern states of Ulster, 24 families settled in Tyrone and Derry. Some, disillusioned, migrated  to the New World from Ireland, but most migrated from Northern Scotland and the Isles. They sailed aboard the tiny overcrowded sailing ships which plied the stormy Atlantic called the 'White sails'. frequently they lost 30-40% of their passengers to disease and the elements.

In North America, early migrants bearing the family name McGeever, or a spelling variation of the name include Angus MacIver, who settled in New England in 1685; Angus McIver, Anne McIver and Duncan McIver, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1774; J. McCiver, who settled in Baltimore in 1820 with his wife and children; as well as Shane and Mary McIver, who settled in New York State in 1803.

Among the most prominent people of the surname McGeever were Richard Tiffany Gere (b.1949) , American Actor. Other famous people were American football player, John McGeever, 1962 Denver Broncos halfback, American sociologist Robert Morrison MacIver (1882-1907) and Norm MacIver (b.1964), Canadian National Hockey League player.

The motto for the clan coat of arms is 'Numquam Obliviscar' which translates as 'I will never forget'.