SCOTTISH NAMES

Slainte Mhath

Good health

The Scottish named their children as follows, although this was not always the case!

1st Son named after Fathers Father

2nd Son named after Mothers Father

3rd Son named after Father

4th Son named after Father's oldest brother

5th Son named after 2nd oldest brother or mother's oldest brother

1st Daughter named after Mothers Mother

2nd Daughter named after Fathers Mother

3rd Daughter named after Mother

4th Daughter named after Mothers  oldest sister

5th Daughter named after 2nd oldest sister or Fathers oldest sister

All of the Following information provided by Mary Powrie Schacht.  Her family came from Tayside, along the Firth of Tay and were mostly hand-loom weavers, with a fisherman, blacksmith and stone mason in the mix.

What is in a name? For a Scot, it can be lineage, a place of origin, a 
profession, a personal trait, a common nickname or a Haggis, with ingredients 
from all the above. If you think about small villages, where everyone knew 
everyone else, it is easy to see that last (surnames) were not necessary. 
Children were born, married and died in the same little town. You can image 
for yourself having two little boys in the village with the first name. 
People would naturally begin saying, "Oh you know, the tall, thin one." 

Or perhaps, "He's the one who lives north of town, or upriver." People were 
defined by who their parents or grandparents were or if their fathers were 
gentry, masons or farmers. The book "Scottish Forenames" can speak on this 
subject both with more eloquence and authority so I quote Donald Whyte. "It 
is often said that the Scots had a traditional naming pattern which was more 
or less rigid, but while it was widespread it was not so unyielding as some 
genealogists have maintained." He is referring to the "custom of naming the 
first two boys and the first two girls in a family after the four 
grandparents. The elder son was named after the paternal grandfather and the 
younger after the maternal grandfather. The elder daughter was named after 
the paternal grandmother, and the younger after the maternal grandmother."

"Frequently third sons and daughters were named after their parents, if they 
did not have the same name of their parents, but this was not always the 
case, and aunts and uncles were chosen alternately from both sides of the 
family." While a child's birth and baptism record rarely shows more than one 
forename, children frequently carried the paternal and maternal grandmother's 
maiden name and that of the mother. In this way, all the names of the lineage 
were carried forward. I have seen numerous examples of one child given a 
name, who then dies in infancy, and another child, born later, is given the 
same name. 

I again quote "Scottish Forenames" in saying "It was thought to bring fortune 
to the child if there were 'name fathers' and 'name mothers', i.e. witnesses 
who bore the Christian (forename) being given the child." If the child was to 
be named Anne, Godmother's of the same forename were chosen. It is a little 
ironic that the first name is called Christian, as many of the names in the 
"Isles" hail back to pre-Christian times. There are Gaelic, Hebrew, Norse, 
and Celtic names. Each invader left traces of themselves in the nomenclature. 
The English (Norman and Saxon), French and Latin, German and Greek left their 
marks, and their prodigy. 

While the names repeat along the male line, each new marriage brought new 
names into the family. The names were also "exported" into other family lines 
with each marriage of the women from our family. The names give clues, but it 
is so easy to go chasing the wrong David, when each of 10 children try naming 
their children after their grandparents! I misquote Shakespeare "Oh what a 
tangled web we weave, when first we marry and then conceive."

An excerpt from Scots Kith and Kin, A comprehensive A-Z Guide to the surnames and their tartans by the Clan House of Edinburgh. It was published first in 1953, the reprinted in 1989.

"An old Gaelic proverb says, 'Remember the men from whence you came.' (I have written out what it would be in Gaelic: Cuimhnich air na daoine o'n d'thainig thu)

" …..By law, throughout Britain, we are require to take the surname of our father and his father before him, not that our mother or even her father's family. The word 'surname' refers to another name which has been ' added on' to a first or Christian name. Just how, and when, your family name was added to a forebear's first name can vary enormously. In Lowland Scotland some territorial names were being introduced as surnames in the 11th century, mostly by landed people. Then we see centuries of surname proliferation as men became known by their trades ('Taillour', 'Porter'), proximity to geographical features ("Wood', 'Burnbank'), personal characteristics or coloring ('Little', 'Reid'), or by connection to their father's name ('Johnson', Donaldson')." Literally John's son, or Donald's son. (The given name means exactly that, the one which can be given to you. The surname is standard equipment.)

This last style, call patronymics, was popular when surnames came widely into use in the Highlands in the 16th century. Gradually (and not until this century in the Northern Isles), the patronymics system was replaced by the adoption of a fixed family name taken from an ancestral figure, or 'namefather' (the Scottish equivalent to Godfather), like Gregor, brother of King Kenneth MacAlpine in the 9th century, from whom the MacGregors take their name. This removed the practice of members of a generation taking their surnames from their own fathers' Christian names. John Robertson's father was Robert Williamson whose father was William Thomson whose father was Thomas Davidson whose father was David…….. The process becomes confusing when you find that your MacDonald forbear was the son of a Donald Campbell.

In the great ancestry game, you will learn quickly that your surname is only the tip of the genetic iceberg. If your genuinely MacDonald forbear had found himself isolated in the heart of Campbell country ten generations ago, had married Jean Campbell, and seen his sons and grandsons married to Campbell girls, you would find yourself today with a bank of forbears totaling 1,022, all of whom were Campbells except yourself and the nine named MacDonald in the direct male line. 

An Excerpt from The Clans and Tartans of Scotland by Robert Bain

Personal names in English and Gaelic

An excerpt from Scottish Surnames by Donald Dorward written in 1995
"Oliver: the name of one of Charlemagne's legendary knights, the faithful companion of Roland, celebrated in various mediaeval epics. It was probably coined from the Latin oliva (French Olivier), the olive branch being a biblical symbol of wisdom. Olivers are found in Scotland as early as 1180, and the name spread all over the Lowlands, becoming thoroughly confused at one stage with Oliphant. Auld Ringan (Ninian) Oliver, a militant Covenanter of reckless courage and hero of many a Border ballad, lived in Jedforest and dies in Edinburgh in 1736. In Shetland the surname may be an assimilation of the Norse personal name Olaf.

"Powrie: a place name (it means 'pasturage') which occurs more than once in the Tayside area; as a surname it is still strongly localized there. (The Tayside could be either be beside the Firth of Tay, the river Tay which runs near Perth or Loch Tay. All are in Perthshire.) William Powry was one of those charged with the murder of Darnly in 1567; a blameless William Powyre was schoolmaster at Linlithgow at the same period." (Mary, Queen of Scot's second husband was Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, 1545-67. He was descended from James II of Scotland and from Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV, and he could lay claim to both the English and Scottish thrones. He was a catholic as was she, so there would be no divorce. Mary arranged an accident, and one of the culprits was a Powrie. Their son would be crowned James VI of Scotland and later James I of England.) 

A few wee waards for ya in Gal lic  From Mary Powrie Schacht

How are you is: Ciamar Tha thu: pronounced Kemmer Ha Oo
I'll have a whiskey: Gabhaidh Mi Uisge-beatha:Gavee Mee Ooshka Baha 
Good health: Slainte Mhath: Slaghcha Va
It's a fine day: Tha latha Mah Ann: Ha Lah Ma Own
Good bye: Oidhche mhath: byannachk leeva

Tapad Leib, (Thank you) in the Gaelic

Tapad Leib, Mary

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