Origination Of Scottish Place-Names

The use of surnames seems to have commenced in France about the year 1000, and surnames were introduced into Scotland through the Normans a little over one hundred years later, thought he custom of using them was hardly common. The first official reference to the practice is from a general council held at Forfar in 1061, during the reign of Malcolm Ceannmor (1057-1093). Malcolm directed his chief subjects to create surnames from the names of their territorial possessions. Thus, the first people in Scotland to acquire fixed surnames were the nobles and great landowners, who called themselves, or were called by others, after the lands they possessed. The form of the names was Norman, - - - de - - -, for instance, Robert de Brus (Brus in Normandy), John de Balliol (Balleul-en-Vimeu in Picard), William de Buchan (Buchan in Scotland),Christopher de Seton (Sayton in Scotland), William de Kirkhaugh (Kirkhaugh in Northumberland, my family), etc. One interesting example comes from the surname of Maxwell. Sometimes confused with the Norman, Maccusville, the name actually came from Maccus, the son of Unwin, a Saxon lord, who obtained a salmon pool on the river Tweed near Kelso Bridge. The pool was then called, Maccus's wiel (pool). The adjacent lands got the name, and the descendants of Maccus became known as, - - - de Maccuswel, and, subsequently, became the powerful Maxwell family of Dumfriesshire and Galloway. But, since not too many persons held significant lands, place-names quickly began to refer to the region or district from where a family originated. For example, Andrew de Moravia ( ofMoray), William de Douglas (of Douglas - dubh glas), Adam de Haddyngton (of Haddington),etc.

As the need for a surname became more pressing, residents of the burghs often adopted street names, such as, Henry de Fishergate, Henry de Cunigstrete, etc.So, the first surnames were place-names and originated with a man who lived in or came from a place, sometimes a big district like Moray (Murray) or Lothian, often a small rural community. A proprietor was particularly likely to take his name from his estate, but tenants also often took their names from the estate where they lived. Clearly many individuals, and ultimately of families, could originate in the same place, and take their names from it, without being related to each other. Besides, the same or similar names were given to different places, and so individuals or families who came from different parts of the country, and shared neither blood nor territorial affinity, could nevertheless have the same surname. Thus, anyone called Calder (or its variant, Caddell) may derive from an ancestor resident in Calder in West Lothian, Calder (or Cadder) in Lanarkshire, Calder (or Cawdor) in Nairnshire, or Calder in Caithness. Similarly, there is no necessary relationship among the many families called Blair, a place-name which occurs in at least a dozen different areas.

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