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Scottish
Surnames
Is
your name
MacDonald ?
Anderson ?
Cullen ?
Wilson ?
MacNeil ..............?
If
so, then your ancestry is Scottish and you may not know that
in Scotland, whoever joined a particular clan, no matter what
his position or descent, assumed the surname of his chief. This
was accepted as an act of loyalty. It did not necessarily follow
that all who bear the same surname are descended from a common
ancestor. As an example of the origin of a surname, here is
an account for the name of Forbes. One Achonacher came from
Ireland to Scotland about the end of the 12th century, and having
slain a monstrous wild boar, took the name of For-bear, afterwards
turned to For-beas, and used a boar's head in his arms to commemorate
the dead.
Scottish
surnames divide themselves into two classes, Highland, and Lowland.
In a very few instances they were assumed before the eleventh
century, and indeed by far the larger proportion, since the
thirteenth century.
They have originated in various ways; are derived from localities,
as Maxwell, Nisbet, Ralston; baptismal names, as Anderson, Bennett,
Lawrence; trades, as Baxter, Fletcher, Nasmyth; offices, as
Bannerman, Grieve, Walker; professions, as Clerk, Freer, Kemp;
peculiarities of body and mind, as Fairfax, Laing, May; armorial
bearings, as Cross, Heart, Horn;
nativity, as Fleming, Inglis, Scott; and from many other sources.
Highland
surnames are chiefly patronymics, with various prefixes and
additions, as Farquhar, Mackenzie, Robertson ; but there are
some exceptions, a few being derived from localities, as Lennox,
Murray, Boss; a good number from peculiarities, as Cameron,
Campbell, Grant; and some from armorial bearings, and offices,
as Frazer, Skene, Stewart.
Lowland surnames having been adopted mainly through Norman influence,
are most frequently local, such as Carmichael, Ridell, Rutherford;
but many are derived from baptismal names, as Dickson, Henderson,
Syme; from peculiarities, as Armstrong, Brown, Douglas; from
armorial bearings, as Foulis, Heron, Lillie; from office, occu-pation,
and trade, as Baillie, Hunter, Lorimer.
In
Scotland, whoever joined a particular clan, no matter what his
position or descent, assumed the surname of his chief, and this
was accepted as an act of loyalty; it does not follow, therefore,
that all who bear the same surname are descended from a common
ancestor.
Originally,
all surnames had a meaning, but in very many cases this has
been lost because of the corruptions in spelling, for their
orthography has only been fixed in the last two centuries. It
is, therefore, probably impossible to render correctly the origin
and signification of all Scottish surnames.
From
the 1995 registers of births, marriages and deaths
The commonest surnames in Scotland were :
1
Smith
2 Brown
3 Wilson
4 Thomson
5 Robertson
6 Campbell
7 Stewart
8 Anderson
9 MacDonald
10 Scott
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