The following information is taken from the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, available online at http://www.dsl.ac.uk/index.html. This is a work in progress.
| Spelling | Number | Dates & headers | 
|---|---|---|
| McDowale | 1 | 1513 (brander) | 
| M'dowall | 1 | 1588 (comptar) | 
| McDowall | 1 | 1516 (centreis) | 
| Mcdowell | 1 | 1398 (controversy) |