The name Mc Kinney originated in the highlands of Scotland. The highlanders are divided into tribes or clans under chief's, as called in the law of Scotland. Each clan is divided into branches from the main stock which have chieftains over them. These are subdivided into similar branches called Septs, who are men who deduce their origin from particular chieftains, and rely upon them as their immediate protectors and defenders.
Mac or Mc means the son of in Scotland and Ireland. So we get Mc Kinney is the son of Kenneth (Cionaodh) meaning fire-sprung.
The Scottish Clans and their Tartans by W. & A.K. Johnston & G.W. Bacon, Ltd., Edinburg, Scotland, gives a brief history of each clan and a full list of septs. According to this account, "Mc Kinney is a sept of the Clan Mc Kinnon. An older form of this surname show it to be Fingon."
Surname Book and Racial History, by Board of Relief Society, Salt Lake City, Utah states, "Mc Kinney a sept of Mc Alpin Clan through Mc Kinnon, son of Finguin."
It all seems to fit together, as the war cry of the Mc Kinnon Clan is, "Remember the death of Alpin." King Alpin was killed by Brude, King of the Picts, in 834 A.D. Clan Mc Aplin and Clan Chattan was the most ancient of the clans of Scotland.
Copied from Genforum