Pedantic point of order: it's Macbeth, not MacBeth. "Macbeth" is his personal (first) name, not his patronymic. His father was Findláech mac Ruaidrí. "Beth" m

Pedantic point of order: it's Macbeth, not MacBeth. "Macbeth" is his personal (first) name, not his patronymic. His father was Findláech mac Ruaidrí. "Beth" means "life". (Gaelic "beathad", cognate to "uisce beatha", water of life, which gives us the word "whiskey"). His personal name means "son of life". (Not entirely unlike the Hebrew name Chaim, which means "life".) Of course none of that is mentioned in the play. But Shakespeare did at least spell it right: "Macbeth". /end pedantry