How to Tell Highland, Lowland, Border and Ulster Scots Apart by Their Last Names
Traced in the DNA
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Rob Roy MacGregor and Robert Burns were both Scottish — and could not have held a conversation. Ninety miles apart, two languages, two peoples, and the fastest way to tell them apart was the surname.
Scotland was never one people with one kind of name. It was four: Highland (Gaelic, clan, named for a founder), Lowland (Scots-speaking, named for places, trades and fathers), Border (the riding families on the roll of 1587), and Ulster Scots (Lowlanders and Borderers who spent a century in Ireland and came out with changed spellings). Tonight: nine tests to sort your own surname — with every famous trap marked.
1. The Mac test — and the Galloway trap (MacDowall, MacLellan, MacCulloch, MacKie, MacClure…)
2. The place-name test — Douglas, Hamilton, Maxwell, Johnston… and the Highland provinces (Sutherland, Ross, Murray)
3. The trade and -son test — and the Highland clans hiding in -son (Robertson, Henderson, Davidson)
4. The roll of 1587 — the Border riding surnames, by Act of Parliament
5. The Norse test — MacLeod, MacAulay, Gunn, MacAskill… and the fifth column: Orkney & Shetland
6. The Ulster test — Mc for Mac, Carr for Kerr, Moore for Muir, Johnston without the e; the 1630 muster roll
7. The nickname test — Dow, Bain, Roy, Glass, Ogg, Begg, Bowie, Gow: Highland names with no Mac
8. The Norman test — Fraser, Chisholm, Menzies, Grant, Cumming, Gordon, Sinclair: why geography beats blood
9. The changed name — MacGregor 1603, the Statutes of Iona 1609, the Act of 1746
Which column did your name land in? Tell me in the comments — and whether it matched what your family always said.
🔎 TRACE YOUR SURNAME: https://dnaorigin.org
Type in your surname and it does the research for you: which of the four Scotlands it began in, what it means, whether it went to Ulster, how it reached America, and the families who carried it before you. Or scan the QR code on screen.
Sources used in this episode: George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland (1946); the Act of 1587 and its roll of Border and Highland clans (Records of the Parliaments of Scotland); the Privy Council proscription of the name MacGregor, 1603; the Statutes of Iona, 1609; the Act of Proscription, 1746; the 1630 Muster Roll of Ulster; Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (Hanks, Coates & McClure, 2016); Old Parish Registers of Scotland.
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How to Tell Highland, Lowland, Border and Ulster Scots Apart by Their Last Names
Traced in the DNA
11,032 views
DESCRIPTION
======================================================================
Rob Roy MacGregor and Robert Burns were both Scottish — and could not have held a conversation. Ninety miles apart, two languages, two peoples, and the fastest way to tell them apart was the surname.
Scotland was never one people with one kind of name. It was four: Highland (Gaelic, clan, named for a founder), Lowland (Scots-speaking, named for places, trades and fathers), Border (the riding families on the roll of 1587), and Ulster Scots (Lowlanders and Borderers who spent a century in Ireland and came out with changed spellings). Tonight: nine tests to sort your own surname — with every famous trap marked.
1. The Mac test — and the Galloway trap (MacDowall, MacLellan, MacCulloch, MacKie, MacClure…)
2. The place-name test — Douglas, Hamilton, Maxwell, Johnston… and the Highland provinces (Sutherland, Ross, Murray)
3. The trade and -son test — and the Highland clans hiding in -son (Robertson, Henderson, Davidson)
4. The roll of 1587 — the Border riding surnames, by Act of Parliament
5. The Norse test — MacLeod, MacAulay, Gunn, MacAskill… and the fifth column: Orkney & Shetland
6. The Ulster test — Mc for Mac, Carr for Kerr, Moore for Muir, Johnston without the e; the 1630 muster roll
7. The nickname test — Dow, Bain, Roy, Glass, Ogg, Begg, Bowie, Gow: Highland names with no Mac
8. The Norman test — Fraser, Chisholm, Menzies, Grant, Cumming, Gordon, Sinclair: why geography beats blood
9. The changed name — MacGregor 1603, the Statutes of Iona 1609, the Act of 1746
Which column did your name land in? Tell me in the comments — and whether it matched what your family always said.
🔎 TRACE YOUR SURNAME: https://dnaorigin.org
Type in your surname and it does the research for you: which of the four Scotlands it began in, what it means, whether it went to Ulster, how it reached America, and the families who carried it before you. Or scan the QR code on screen.
Sources used in this episode: George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland (1946); the Act of 1587 and its roll of Border and Highland clans (Records of the Parliaments of Scotland); the Privy Council proscription of the name MacGregor, 1603; the Statutes of Iona, 1609; the Act of Proscription, 1746; the 1630 Muster Roll of Ulster; Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (Hanks, Coates & McClure, 2016); Old Parish Registers of Scotland.