Collins Tracing Your Scottish Family History. Anthony Adolph

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       The name of Ailsa Craig, an island in the Firth of Clyde, contains the Gaelic creag, meaning ‘rock’.

      Some places with Gaelic names were given new names by English-speakers – Cill Rìmhinn (‘church of the king’s hill’) is now called St Andrew’s. However, whilst some names survive with their old spellings, many, as with surnames, have half-survived through Anglicization (such as Bowmore for Bogha Mòr, ‘great rock submerged in the sea’) or through direct translation, sometimes of only part of the name. Lochgilphead was Ceann Loch Gilb (where Ceann means ‘head’), for example. Known changes of parish names up to the 1790s are detailed in volume 20 of the First Statistical Account (see p. 32).

      This becomes very relevant to genealogists when an ancestor gave a place of origin in a form that is no longer used. If a Gaelic place name is given, and you cannot find it, find out what it means and see if it now exists in an English translation.

      Modern Ordnance Survey maps show many places in their Gaelic form, as authentically as possible. The commonest elements of place names are:

      Badnaban meant ‘place of the women’; Cnocaneach ‘hill of the horses’ and Badnahachlais ‘place of the armpit’, presumably because it was in a narrow valley that does look rather like one.

      Anglicization

      As Scots and English replaced Gaelic, Gaelic surnames were Anglicized, leading to many changes in spelling, that often disguised true meanings. ‘Mac Gille’, meaning ‘son of the servant of…’ often became ‘McIl…’ or ‘Macel…’ There was also a tendency (on the part of registrars) to change difficult-to-spell Gaelic surnames into more familiar, existing surnames that sounded similar, which is how some MacEahcrans became Cochranes, and some O’Brolachans are now Brodies. Some surnames were subject to (almost) literal translations: some MacIntyres (‘son of the carpenter’) are now called Wright, for wrights crafted things.

      Nicknames

      Where a surname was very common, families might add an extra nickname or ‘tee name’. In her excellent Scottish Family Tree Detective (Manchester University Press, 2006), Rosemary Bigwood notes some north-east coast families being known by their surname followed by the name of their fishing boat, whilst in the Hebrides Bill Lawson noted extra surnames such as Kelper (kelp harvester), Clachair (mason) and Saighdear (soldier, usually used of an army pensioner). The MacLeod descendants of John MacLeod from Muck, who settled in Harris in 1779 as a gardener, are known locally as MacLeod na Gairneileirean, or just na Gairneileirean, ‘the Gardeners’.

      Other nicknames were from characteristics, such as Dubh (black-haired) and Ruadh (redhaired). Red-haired Angus MacDougal might thus be known as Angus Ruadh Mac Dougal, or Angus Mac Dougal Ruadh. In the Lowlands, when the patronymic system died out nicknames could become people’s only surnames, such as Duff (from Duhb) or Cruikshanks (‘crooked legs’). Many people also became known by where they lived – Cairncross, Cairns, Cladcleuch and so on, some with interesting twists: the Caithness family aren’t from Caithness, but from Kettins in the barony of Angus.