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I agree with most of this, but "Son of the handsome one" is not "invented out of thin air", because "handsome" is indeed one of the possible derivations of Kenneth. So the only problem with that one is the unspoken assumption that when the form Mackenzie was first created people still were cognizant of the original meaning of Coinneach. And of course the "comely" idea is simply leaving off the "son of" and going back to the original Coinneach.

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I think there are some authors who have been guilty of making up derivations. Diane Stafford of 40,001 Best Baby Names has so many completely eccentric "meanings" that I think she must have invented some of them herself. But most of these authors are only guilty of choosing what they think is the most attractive meaning from among those they find in the previous sources they consult, without having any knowledge of how to figure out which of those are most likely to be accurate.