Scotland Names, Personal
| Scotland Wiki Topics | |
 | |
| Beginning Research | |
| Record Types | |
| Scotland Background | |
| Cultural Groups | |
| Local Research Resources | |
Understanding given names and surnames can help you trace your ancestors. The Scots did not have a specific naming pattern, but they often gave their children family names. Sometimes when a child died, the next child of that sex born into the family was given the same name. Occasionally two or more living children in the family had the same given name.
Surnames[edit | edit source]
The nobility and wealthy landowners first began using surnames. Merchants and townspeople adopted the custom, as eventually did the rural population. This process took several centuries. Surnames developed from several sources. For example:
- Occupational (based on a person’s trade, such as Carter or Smith)
- Geographical (based on a person’s residence, such as Drayton or Debenham)
- Patronymic (based on a person’s father’s name, such as Jones, son of John)
- Descriptive or nickname (such as Joy or Child)
Many books discuss Scottish surnames. Two are:
- Guppy, Henry Brougham. Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1968. (Family History Library book 942 D4g 1968.) This book discusses the geographic origins and meanings of certain surnames.
- Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Digital version at Ancestry - free; (Family History Library book 929.42 H194d. BYU FHL book CS 2385 .H27 1988.) The book contains entries for most major surnames of European origin and some rare surnames.
- Lasker, G. W. and C. G. N. Mascie-Taylor. Atlas of British Surnames: With 154 Maps of Selected Surnames. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1990. (Family History Library book 942 D4Lg.) This book charts with maps the density of surnames in Scotland.
- Titford, John . Searching for Surnames: A Practical Guide to their Meanings and Origins. Newbury, England: Countryside Books, 2002. (Family History Library book 942 D4tj.) This book discusses the meaning and origins of early surnames.
Several websites help you map the geography of Scottish surnames. To learn more, see Surname Distribution Maps. GenMap UK (£) helps you create your own United Kingdom surname distribution maps.
Projects that study specific surnames are called one-name studies. The Guild of One-Name Studies is an example of an organization that has identified several thousands such projects.
The British Surnames website can help you learn a wide variety of information about Scottish surnames. Genuki.co.uk maintains a 'Surname List' by county which could prove to be helpful.
Another aspect of Scottish surnames is pronunciation. "A List of Surnames Pronounced Differently from What the Spelling Suggests" (1883)[1], available online, identifies some more unusual examples.
Scottish Gaelic[edit | edit source]
Scottish Gaelic gives rise to many Scottish surnames, including any beginning with Mac or Mc, as well as names such as Campbell, Dewar, Menzies etc. Some of these were written down in English phonetics, e.g. MacDonald or McWhannel for MacDhomhnaill and/or were later translated e.g. Smith can translate Mac a' Ghobhainn, which is also anglicized as Gow or MacGowan. The old Scottish Gaelic naming system is extremely complex, and exists mainly in oral tradition.
Many personal names such as Iain (John), Malcolm, Duncan, Fiona and Morag all ultimately derive from the language too. There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy, or Sophie.
The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as MacGillEathain (MacLean). The female form is nic (Gaelic for daughter), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì. [Strictly, "nic" is a contraction of the Gaelic phrase "nighean mhic", meaning "daughter of the son", thus Nic Dhomhnuill, really means "daughter of MacDonald" rather than "daughter of Donald".] Although there is a common misconception that "mac" means "son of", the "of" part actually comes from the genitive form of the patronymic that follows the prefix "Mac", e.g., in the case of MacNéill, Néill (of Neil) is the genitive form of Niall (Neil).
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: bàn (Bain – white), ruadh (Roy – red), dubh (Dow – black), donn (Dunn – brown), buidhe (Bowie – yellow).
External Links[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Robert Charles Hope, A Glossary of Dialectal Place-nomenclature, To Which is Appended A List of Family Surnames Pronounced Differently from What the Spelling Suggests (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1883). Digitised by Internet Archive - free.
| ||||