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This pertains at least to Nova Scotia where my McLellan ancestors settled after leaving Scotland, and I hope it will be helpful.
Most people know to check both Mc and Mac spellings which mean exactly the same thing. Before 1900 nearly all occurrences are "Mc", but it changed about then to where many became "Mac", and today nearly all Nova Scotians of Scottish ancestry use the "Mac" version. The most mentioned reason for this is the FALSE, but still persisting, belief that "Mc" is Irish and "Mac" is Scottish.
The most frustrating anomaly I have found is the replacing of the "ll" in the name with "nn", so that it appears as "McLennan" rather than "McLellan". Fully half of the census records, marriage licenses, and birth registrations I have looked at for my Nova Scotian ancestors have the "nn" spelling. My theory is that most of these individuals in the 1800s could not write their names, and the clerks, ministers, JPs, etc. who filled out the forms misinterpreted the name based on the still existing brogue of the applicants.
Nick
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