Scottish names are used in the country of Scotland as well as elsewhere in the Western World as a result of the Scottish diaspora. See also about Scottish names.
Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
ErrillScottish The family originated from Errol (Arroll) in Perthshire, Scotland
ErrolScottish Derived from a village by this name in Perthshire.
ErwinEnglish, German, Irish, Scottish From the given name Erwin. From the Middle English personal name EverwinErwin perhaps from Old English Eoforwine (eofor "boar" and wine "friend") but mostly from an Old French form of the cognate ancient Germanic name Everwin or from a different ancient Germanic name Herewin with loss of initial H- (first element hariheri "army")... [more]
EsplinScottish Scottish variant of Asplin. This was borne by the English stained glass artist and muralist Mabel Esplin (1874-1921).
FariesScottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Faries (meaning: fair, beautiful, or handsome) is derived from ancient Scottish Dalriadan MacFergus clans of the mountainous west coast of Scotland... [more]
FarishScottish "Farish" derives from "Fari" meaning "Farrier".This unravells to many decades ago when people forged shoes for horses,people who were extremly skilled blacksmiths and named "farrier".This group of "farriers" named "Farish" lived in the highlands of the cool misty moors of scotland-the mighty country,who unleashed highly educated citizens who dispersed all over britain.
FerrierScottish Scottish: occupational name for a smith, one who shoed horses, Middle English and Old French ferrier, from medieval Latin ferrarius, from ferrus ‘horseshoe’, from Latin ferrum ‘iron’. Compare Farrar.
FirthEnglish, Scottish, Welsh English and Scottish: topographic name from Old English (ge)fyrhþe ‘woodland’ or ‘scrubland on the edge of a forest’.... [more]
FitchScottish The name fitch is of anglo-saxon decent, it refers to a person of iron point inrefrence to a soldier or worrior it is derived from an english word (Fiche) which means iron point the name started in county suffolk
FlettScottish, English (Canadian) Probably originating in Orkney and Shetland, from a place in the parish of Delting, Shetland, named with an Old Norse term 'flotr' denoting a strip of arable land or pasture. Also possibly derived from the Old Norse byname Fljótr ‘swift’, ‘speedy’... [more]
ForbesIrish, Scottish Comes from a Scottish place meaning "field" in Gaelic. It can also be used as a first name.... [more]
FordyceScottish A Scottish Gaelic surname meaning "A cold place to the southward." From Gaelic fuar, meaning "cold," and deas, meaning "south."
ForgieScottish Possibly a variant of Fergie or a shortened form of Ferguson. It could also be a habitational name from a place so named in Scotland.
ForsythScottish Variant of Forsythe. Known bearers include the Scottish botanist William Forsyth (1737-1804), after whom the genus Forsythia is named, and Scottish inventor Alexander John Forsyth (1769-1843).
ForsytheScottish, Northern Irish This surname has two possible origins. The more accepted explanation is that it comes from the Gaelic given name Fearsithe, which means "man of peace" from the elements fear "man" and sithe "peace"... [more]
FortuneScottish Originally meant "person from Fortune", Lothian ("enclosure where pigs are kept").
GalbraithScottish, Scottish Gaelic Ethnic name for someone descended from a tribe of Britons living in Scotland, from Gaelic gall ‘stranger’ + Breathnach ‘Briton’ (i.e. ‘British foreigner’). These were either survivors of the British peoples who lived in Scotland before the Gaelic invasions from Ireland in the 5th century (in particular the Welsh-speaking Strathclyde Britons, who survived as a distinctive ethnic group until about the 14th century), or others who had perhaps migrated northwestwards at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
GallScottish, Irish, English Nickname, of Celtic origin, meaning "foreigner" or "stranger". In the Scottish Highlands the Gaelic term gall was applied to people from the English-speaking lowlands and to Scandinavians; in Ireland the same term was applied to settlers who arrived from Wales and England in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century... [more]
GallowayScottish Scottish: regional name from Galloway in southwestern Scotland, named as ‘place of the foreign Gaels’, from Gaelic gall ‘foreigner’ + Gaidheal ‘Gael’. From the 8th century or before it was a province of Anglian Northumbria... [more]
GeddesScottish, Irish There is a place of this name in Nairn, but the name is more likely to be a patronymic from Geddie.
GeeIrish, Scottish, English, French Irish and Scottish: reduced form of McGee, Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha ‘son of Aodh’ (see McCoy). ... [more]
GillespieScottish, Irish Gillespie can be of Scottish and Irish origin. The literal meaning is "servant of bishop", but it is a forename rather than a status name. The Irish Gillespies, originally MacGiollaEaspuig, are said to to be called after one Easpog Eoghan, or Bishop Owen, of Ardstraw, County Tyrone... [more]
GladstoneScottish Habitational name from a place near Biggar in Lanarkshire, apparently named from Old English gleoda meaning "kite" + stān meaning "stone".
GlassIrish, Scottish Anglicized form of the epithet glas "gray, green, blue" or any of various Gaelic surnames derived from it.
GlendenningScottish Habitational name from a place in the parish of Westerkirk, Dumfries, recorded in 1384 as Glendonwyne. It is probably named from Welsh glyn meaning "valley" + din meaning "fort" + gwyn meaning "fair", "white".
GlendonScottish, English From the first name, which means "from the dark glen" in Scottish Gaelic.
GrantEnglish, Scottish From a medieval personal name, probably a survival into Middle English of the Old English byname Granta (see Grantham).
GrassScottish Occupational name, reduced from Gaelic greusaiche "shoemaker". A certain John Grasse alias Cordonar (Middle English cordewaner "shoemaker") is recorded in Scotland in 1539.
GunnScottish This ancient Scottish surname is of Norwegian origin derived from the Old Norse personal name Gunnr. This surname, in most cases originated in Caithness, Scotland's most northerly county.
GuthrieScottish, Irish As a Scottish surname, this is either a habitational name for a person from the village of Guthrie near Forfar, itself from Gaelic gaothair meaning "windy place" (a derivative of gaoth "wind") and the locative suffix -ach, or alternatively it might possibly be an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mag Uchtre meaning "son of Uchtre", a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps related to uchtlach "child".... [more]
HackneyEnglish, Scottish Habitational name from Hackney in Greater London, named from an Old English personal name Haca (genitive Hacan) combined with ēg "island, dry ground in marshland".
HackneyEnglish, Scottish From Middle English hakenei (Old French haquenée), an ambling horse, especially one considered suitable for women to ride; perhaps therefore a metonymic occupational name for a stablehand... [more]
HailesScottish, English Scottish habitational name from Hailes in Lothian, originally in East Lothian, named from the Middle English genitive or plural form of hall ‘hall’. ... [more]
HaldaneEnglish, Scottish From an old personal name, Old Norse Halfdanr, Old Danish Halfdan, Anglo-Scandinavian Healfdene, meaning ‘half-Dane’.
HaliburtonScottish Means "town fortified in stone". It comes from a combination of the Old Norse element hallr meaning rock (as in Halle) and of the Old English place name Burton, denoting a fortified town... [more]
HamEnglish, German, Scottish, Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon meaning the home stead, many places in England. One who came from Hamm in North-Rhine Westphalia, or one who came from Ham in Caithness Scotland's most northerly county. In Scotland this surname devires from the Norse word "Hami", meaning homestead.
HamillScottish Habitational name from Haineville or Henneville in Manche, France, named from the Germanic personal name Hagano + Old French ville "settlement".
HarknessScottish, English (British), Northern Irish Apparently a habitational name from an unidentified place (perhaps in the area of Annandale, with which the surname is connected in early records), probably so called from the Old English personal name Hereca (a derivative of the various compound names with the first element here ‘army’) + Old English næss ‘headland’, ‘cape’... [more]
HarwoodEnglish, Scots Habitation name found especially along the border areas of England and Scotland, from the Old English elements har meaning "gray" or hara referring to the animals called "hares" plus wudu for "wood"... [more]
HastingsEnglish, Scottish Habitational name from Hastings, a place in Sussex, on the south coast of England, near which the English army was defeated by the Normans in 1066. It is named from Old English H?stingas ‘people of H?sta’... [more]
HawleyEnglish, Scottish Means "hedged meadow". It comes from the English word haw, meaning "hedge", and Saxon word leg, meaning "meadow". The first name Hawley has the same meaning.
HayEnglish, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Frisian Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure, Middle English hay(e), heye(Old English (ge)hæg, which after the Norman Conquest became confused with the related Old French term haye ‘hedge’, of Germanic origin)... [more]
HiddlestonEnglish, Scottish Habitational name from a place called Huddleston in Yorkshire, England. The place name was derived from the Old English personal name HUDEL.
HighlanderScottish Name given to a person who lived in the high lands of Scotland.
HindEnglish, Scottish English (central and northern): nickname for a gentle or timid person, from Middle English, Old English hind ‘female deer’.... [more]
HinshelwoodScottish, English Denoted a person from a lost place called Henshilwood near the village of Carnwath on the southern edge of the Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is derived from Scots hainchil obscurely meaning "haunch" and Old English wudu meaning "wood"... [more]
HollidayScottish An ancient Scottish name that was first used by the Strathclyde-Briton people of the Scottish/English Borderlands. It is a name for someone who lived near the mountain called Holy Day in the country of Annandale.
HolyfieldEnglish, Scottish Although the Scottish surname is known to derive from the Medieval Latin word "olifantus," meaning "elephant," its origins as a surname are quite uncertain. ... He was one of the many Anglo-Norman nobles that were invited northward by the early Norman kings of Scotland.
HoodEnglish, Scottish, Irish English and Scottish: metonymic occupational name for a maker of hoods or a nickname for someone who wore a distinctive hood, from Middle English hod(de), hood, hud ‘hood’. Some early examples with prepositions seem to be topographic names, referring to a place where there was a hood-shaped hill or a natural shelter or overhang, providing protection from the elements... [more]
HuntleyEnglish, Scottish Habitational name from a place in Gloucestershire, so named from Old English hunta 'hunter' (perhaps a byname (see Hunt) + leah 'wood', 'clearing'). Scottish: habitational name from a lost place called Huntlie in Berwickshire (Borders), with the same etymology as in 1.
HuttonEnglish, Scottish Scottish and northern English habitational name from any of the numerous places so called from Old English hoh ‘ridge’, ‘spur’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.
HyslopScottish Habitational name from an unidentified place in northern England, perhaps so called from Old English hæsel (or the Old Norse equivalent hesli) ‘hazel’ + hop ‘enclosed valley’.
InglisEnglish (British), Scottish Originates from the Scots word for English as in a person of English origin. Around 1395 after a dual, the family name became connected to the Scottish clan Douglas as a sept, or a follower, of the clan... [more]
InverarityScottish Means "person from Inverarity", Angus ("mouth of the Arity", perhaps a Celtic river-name meaning literally "slow").
IrelandEnglish, Scottish Ethnic name for someone from Ireland, Old English Iraland. The country gets its name from the genitive case of Old English Iras "Irishmen" and land "land". The stem Ir- is taken from the Celtic name for Ireland, Èriu, earlier Everiu... [more]
KentieScottish, English, Dutch Origin and meaning unknown. The name Kentie was spread in the Netherlands when a Scottish soldier, Alexander Kenti, settled at Woudrichem, the Netherlands around 1650. Alexander Kenti was born and raised in the Scottish highlands... [more]
KewishScottish, Manx The surname Kewish was first found in on the Isle of Uist, in the Hebrides in Scotland, which is named for the Irish King, Colla Uais who was deposed in Ireland by Muedach Tireach and was banished with 300 of their principal chiefs to the Hebrides in 327 A.D. They became known as the kingdom of Ailech and gave birth to the kindred of St... [more]
KincaidScottish Scottish habitational name from a place near Lennoxtown, north of Glasgow, which is first recorded in 1238 as Kincaith and in 1250 as Kincathe... [more]
KinkadeScottish Habitation name, from the lands of Kincaid in Scotland.
KirklandEnglish, Scottish Derived from the Scottish 'kirk', meaning church, and land. This name denoted one who lived near or tended to the land belonging to or surrounding a church. A famous /fictional/ bearer is Arthur Kirkland, a main character in the highly popular anime/webmanga Axis Powers Hetalia... [more]
LaingScottish Scottish form of Lang. A famous bearer was the explorer Alexander Gordon Laing.
LamondScottish Scottish classical pianist and composer; Henry George Lamond has this surname. It means lawyer.
LapsleyScottish, English, Medieval English Combination of Old English læppa ”end of a parish” and leah ”woodland clearing”. Another meaning could be possible.
LauderScottish, Northern Irish From a village in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. It derives from the Celtic Lauuedder, probably indicating a rapidly flowing river, cognate with Modern Welsh llifer meaning 'to gush'.
LawlerIrish, Scottish This Irish surname is of Gaelic language origin. The surname derives from the original Gaelic 'O'Leathlobhair' meaning 'descendant of leathlobhair'. Leathlobhair derives from 'Leath' meaning 'Half' and 'Lobhar' meaning 'leper'.... [more]
LeaskScottish Named after the village of Leask in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.... [more]
LeatherEnglish, Scottish A metonymic occupational name for a leatherworker or seller of leather goods, and derived from Middle English and Old English lether meaning "leather".
LeckeyScottish, English, Irish Originally Scottish, but also found in England, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Possibly derives from the barony of Leckie (meaning "place of flagstones", from Gaelic leac, "flagstone") in Stirlingshire.
LiddingtonEnglish, Scottish (Rare) This surname is derived from a geographical locality. "of Liddington", a parish in Rutland, near Uppingham; a parish in Wiltshire, near Swindon.
LivingstonEnglish, Scottish This surname is thought to be derived from Middle English Levingestun meaning "Leving's town" or "Leving's settlement."
LivingstoneScottish, Irish, Jewish Scottish: Habitational name from a place in Lothian, originally named in Middle English as Levingston, from an owner called Levin (Lewin), who appears in charters of David I in the early 12th century.... [more]
LochheadScottish Topographic name for someone who lived at the head of a loch, derived from Scottish Gaelic ceann meaning "head (land)" and loch meaning "loch".
LockhartScottish, German Scottish: of uncertain origin, probably from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements loc ‘lock’, ‘bolt’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. English: occupational name for a herdsman in charge of a sheep or cattlefold, from Old English loc ‘enclosure’, ‘fold’ + hierde ‘herd(er)’.
LomasEnglish, Scottish, Scottish Gaelic Variant spelling of "Lomax", meaning a steam pool devoted from Lumhalghs, Lancs. Also variant spelling of "Lennox", meaning Elmwood in Gaelic.
LorraineFrench, English, Scottish habitational name from Lorraine a region in the northeastern part of France. Its name derives from the name of the medieval kingdom of Lothari Regnum which in turn was named for its sovereign Lothar (a personal name composed of the elements hlud "famous renowned" and hariheri "army").
LoudonScottish, English (Canadian) This surname is Scottish, although also recorded in England. It is believed to be locational from the village of Loudoun, in the district of Cunningham, in the county of Ayrshire. The placename is composed of the Northern English word "low", meaning a flame or beacon, itself from the pre 7th century Norse word "loge", plus the Gaelic "doun", meaning a hill... [more]
LoughtyScottish Uncommon Scottish surname meaning 'by a lake'. It is derived from the Scottish word 'loch', meaning lake, combined with the suffix 'ty', in this case signifying 'by'.
LoveEnglish, Scottish From Anglo-Norman French lo(u)ve meaning "female wolf."
MaccaaScottish MacCaa has many clan associations; the most prominent being with the Stuarts of Bute, the Clan MacKay, the Clan MacFarlane, the Clan MacDonald and Clan Galloway. The name is a phonetic variation of MacKay, meaning 'son of Aoh (ie the champion)'... [more]
MacConallScottish (Anglicized, Rare), Irish (Anglicized, Rare) Anglicized form of Scottish and Irish Gaelic Mac Conaill 'son of Conall', the personalized name composing of the elements con, which is an inflected form of cú 'wolf' + gal 'valor'. Giving the ultimate meaning due to variegated spellings of this specified name, is "Battle-Wolf of High Valor."
MacDowellScottish, Irish Variant of Mcdowell. A famous bearer is American actress Andie MacDowell (1958-). Another was the American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell (1860-1908).
MacduffScottish Gaelic From the ancient Scottish Gaelic Mac duib meaning "son of the black/dark man." This name may have originated as a ethnic term about the native Scots used by Viking conquestors during the later half of the First Millenium... [more]
MacFadyenScottish, Irish Variant of Mcfadden. Famous bearers include English actor Matthew Macfadyen (1974-) and Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen (1963-).
MacGillisScottish The MacGillis surname is a very rare surname from Scotland. It means "Mac Giolla Iosa", and translates to "son of the servant of Jesus". The surname was first found in Perthshire in central Scotland.... [more]
MacGillivrayScottish Anglicisation of Scottish Gaelic Mac Gillebhràth meaning "son of the servant of judgement".