do you have a Scottish surname or is there one in your family tree
then you will want to know about their origin and meanings as this will tell
you a lot about your ancient Scottish ancestors here's what you need to know
if you have a Scottish surname you're in good company millions of people around the world are
descended from the Scots and bear their surnames to this day if there is a bit of Scot in you you
will naturally be interested in the origin and meaning of Scottish surnames as this can
tell you a lot about your Scottish ancestors even beyond what written records can reveal like most
of Europe people in Scotland did not begin using surnames until the Middle Ages while people were
undoubtedly using them for a while before they were first recorded in written form surnames
in Scotland first appear during the reign of King David the first who reigned from 1124
to 1153 the earliest recorded Scottish surnames were anglo-norman names that had already become
hereditary surnames in England at the time of the Norman Conquest nearly a century prior gradually
these surnames worked their way into Scotland which shared a border with England also during
this time some English and Flemish people had emigrated to Scotland bringing their cultural
first names and hereditary surnames with them as well as their nicknames these all became adapted
into Scottish culture and language an early source of Scottish surnames that is available to most
researchers is the Ragman role which was taken in 1296 and records deeds of homage that Scots
nobles were forced to pay to the English King Edward the first the surnames found on the role
are similar to English surnames on the same period being mostly patronymic occupational
and geographical surnames some of the surnames described places in Scotland while there are a
few Gaelic surnames on the Ragman role they are all the exception rather than the rule in fact
Scotland is similar to other parts of Europe in another way when it comes to surnames this
way is the use of patronymic surnames among the earliest surnames use in the country patronymic
our surnames that come from the first name of a person's father so James the son of William
would become James Williamson James's son Robert would become Robert jimson and so on the surname
changed with each generation until a patronymic surname was eventually adopted as the permanent
surname of the family from then on patronymic surnames in Scotland from the earliest period
of surname use are written in several different languages Latin was a common way of recording
names on early Scottish records English Welsh and Gaelic are other languages that were used
the same surnames can appear in a variety of different spellings all meaning the same thing
depending on what language was used to record it with patronymic surnames filius was used for Latin
app was used for Welsh son was used for English and Mac was used for Gaelic all means son of
some of these son of words were used as suffixes on surnames while others were used as prefixes
patronymic naming ended in the Scottish lowlands in the 1400s but continued in the highlands until
the 1700s in the Shetland Islands of Scotland they continued to be used until the early 1800s
after patronymic surnames the second most common type of surname in Scotland is geographical ones
these are surnames that describe where a family or sometimes an individual person originated nobility
and wealthy people who owned a lot of lands were the first ones to take on this type of surname in
Scotland they took their surnames from the name of their lands for example the surname Crawford comes
from the town of Crawford South Lanarkshire in the southern part of Scotland the surname Barton
comes from the Scottish town of Dumbarton and so on later tenants who lived on the lands by the
nobility and wealthy adopted the geographical surnames of their high and mighty landlords so
just because two people from Scotland have the surname Barton does not mean they are related
one may be descended from a landowner and one may be descended from a tenant of that same
landowner other people adopted surnames based on the geographical features of where they originated
rather than the names of the lands they owned features may have been natural like forests
streams hills valleys marshes and mountains or man-made like castles and churches even mills and
bridges Wood Shaw and Milne are all geographical Scottish surnames the next most popular type of
Scottish surname is occupational surnames these are surnames that correspond to what a person
or their family if it was a generational trade handed down from father to son for generations
did for a living like other surnames there was one original person who started using the name and it
became hereditary with subsequent generations there for people with surnames like Sheppard
Mason Stewart and Fletcher all had an ancestor who originally had this occupation in Scotland
a less common type of Scottish surname is referred to as a by name it was once a very popular type of
surname in Scotland but has become less so over the centuries by names were originally used in
areas where there were only a few commonly used first names and a by name was added onto their
first name to distinguish them from others with the same first name in that area or town as an
example the name of someone's fishing boat might be added to their first name to distinguish them
from other fishermen in the area other by names were physical features of a person
that distinguish them from others of their same first name surnames like white little
Michael meaning big in Gaelic and Campbell which is Gaelic for crooked mouth in Gaelic
and is coincidentally one of the most common surnames in modern Scotland are all by names
Armstrong meaning son of a strong man is also a common Scottish by name surname finally ethnic
surnames that referred to the place of origin of someone who came a long distance from their
original home were sometimes used in Scotland in the early days of surname use Fleming meaning from
the Flanders and Galbraith meaning stranger are examples of ethnic surnames in Scotland
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