I've been following this dialogue off and on with some interest, and wonder if anyone knows WHO Macoupin was? Looks like it could have been French, rather than Celtic (as in McCoupin). If so.....it likely was originally pronounced Mah-coo-pan' (with just the beginning sound of the "N"). AND, it might even originally had a hard "G" in the middle, which was lost entirely to many of the non-French speakers. We have a bunch of French names here in St. Louis that have been "Germanized" into the strangest sounds you can imagine. However, nothing can top Courtois Creek, about 100 miles SW of St. Louis, which is now called "Coat'-a-way" by everyone. It's a real stretch to get from Coor-twah' to Coat'-a-way, but it happened! Ann McReynolds, St. Louis