Miscellaneous Scottish Naming

Under the clan system, prevailing on the Borders and in the Highlands, men often assumed the names of their chieftains or feudal superiors. There was a compelling reason for this sometimes, as when the earl of Menteith -- for some reason -- declared war against all men, except the kingand those of the name of Graham. This attracted considerable popularity to that surname in the district of the Lennox and Menteith. But, because of the adoption of clan names, when a man moved from one estate to another, he might change his name. In the 1750's, John MackDonell was really a Campbell, having changed his name to that of MacDonnel upon coming to live in the bounds and under the protection of the MacDonnel family of Glengary. The use of the landlord's name explains why, in the 1580's, a servant of the Earl of Huntly was called, Gordonor Page - Gordon because his master, Huntly, was a Gordon and Page, he (or an ancestor)being a page. I think that there is a preoccupation in this country with trying to be identified as a descendant of a Highland family or clan.

The fact that, at any given time, the Highlands represented a small minority of the population of Scotland, should make it obvious that most persons of Scottish extraction came from lowland families. When discussing this with people I meet, I usually am told that some family ancestor had a Highland name. From what has been written here so far, it should be clear that this use of name to establish a relationship is suspect. Further, many Highland names are also lowland names. Gordon is a particularly good example of a name usually regarded as a Highland clan name without there being any grounds for considering it so. The name originated with Richer de Gordun, lord of the barony of Gordon in the Merse. But when a branch of the family later settled in Strathbogie, the whole country around soon became full of men calling themselves Gordon. This name is now widespread throughout Scotland, and there is even a Polish family of Gordon. Generally speaking, if you think you have descended from a Highland family, or clan, you are probably wrong. Occasionally there is a switch from one kind of designation to another. In the 1470's, the three sons of Thomas Soutar were David, John and Thomas Thomson, and whether their descendants were Soutars or Thomsons is unknown. There was, also, an inclination for people to give up the more outlandish names to adopt names that were familiar or distinguished. It seems, to takea curious example, that the Scandinavian, Sigurdsson, which became Shuardson in Shetland, wasScotticised as Stewartson and finished as Stewart. So, not all Stewarts were related to a Stewartking. Further some Stewarts probably descended from the stewards of this or that estate, not from royal stewards. Name changes sometimes occurred on inheriting or otherwise acquiring landed property. Sometimes charters even specified that the proprietor must bear a certain name. For similar reasons, husbands sometimes took their wives' names. In any of such cases, the surname ceases to be a guide to more remote ancestry. In ancestral research, variations in the spelling of a name can be confusing, particularly if there is no significance in variant spellings of the same name. For example, prior to sixteen hundred, my ancestors' family name was spelled, Kirkhaugh, Kirkhaucht, Kirkalch, Kirkhalche,Kirkhaulch, Kirkhauch, Kyrkhauch, and Kyrkhalch; all of which would have sounded alike when spoken. Also, in Highland names, there is no significance in the variation between Mac and Mc, and between the use of a capital or a small letter in the second part of the name, such as, MacLean and Maclean. The variation in spelling is easy to understand when one realizes that most people in the middle ages could not read or write. If a person could not spell their name, someone recording the name did so phonetically. Different scribes used different spellings, and the same scribe might use different spellings within the same document. Even an individual might spell his own name in different ways on different occasions.

In fact, until about two and a half centuries ago, the spelling of proper names, and many other words, was quite arbitrary. So no significance should be attached to different spellings as indicative of ancestry or relationship. It sometimes was simply a matter of chance that a family adopted a particular spelling, while other families, possibly closely related to them, adopted different spellings. On the other hand, similar spellings of different names may lead a researcher astray. Livingston is a Lowland name, of West Lothian origin, but Livingstone is a Highland name, and there is no relation between the two. Similarly, Johnson is a patronymic name, but Johnston derives from John's toun or settlement, while Johnstone might originate in the name of some landmark. Some Camerons - perhaps most -- are Highland Camerons from Lochiel, but others take their names from the places called Cameron in Lothian and Fife. Dewar and Shaw are other examples of names with distinct Highland and Lowland origins, and Dunn, while it may derive from the Gaelic, donn, may equally well derive from the place Dun, in Angus.

The distinction between a Highland and Lowland origin has often been effaced when a Gaelic name has been translated into English, so that MacNeacail becomes Nicolson, and MacGille-mhoire becomes Morison --which means that they are added to the host of unrelated patronymics spanning the whole country, with no affinity among them. Compilers of official records did not always have a consistent preference for a surname, and when there was consistency, it was often based on utilitarian considerations, by using a designation that most clearly identified the individual. On the other hand, it may be that the official recording of names had a certain influence in stabilizing surnames, and in some are as the establishment of the Register of Sasines in 1617 clearly had some effect. Variation of names further declined because ministers, in their registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, preferred names which they did not feel was outlandish. In the Highlands, many names indicative of remote ancestry were lost because ministers had difficulty in recording Gaelic names unfamiliar to them. They substituted names which had well established Anglicized forms. Variations that survived into the nineteenth century were further curbed by the compulsory registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1855. Registrars began to insist that individuals use the same surname as his father.

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