indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Surname (from location & from occupation)
Other Forms FormsMag Uchtre, O Fhlaithimh
Meaning & History
Scottish: habitational name from a place near Forfar, named in Gaelic with gaothair ‘windy place’ (a derivative of gaoth ‘wind’) + the locative suffix -ach. Possibly an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mag Uchtre ‘son of Uchtre’, a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to uchtlach ‘child’.
Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Fhlaithimh ‘descendant of Flaitheamh’, a byname meaning ‘prince’. This is the result of an erroneous association of the Gaelic name in the form Ó Fhlaithimh (Fh being silent), with the Gaelic word laithigh ‘mud’, and of mud with gutters, and an equally erroneous association of the Scottish surname Guthrie with the word ‘gutter’. Compare Laffey.
Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Fhlaithimh ‘descendant of Flaitheamh’, a byname meaning ‘prince’. This is the result of an erroneous association of the Gaelic name in the form Ó Fhlaithimh (Fh being silent), with the Gaelic word laithigh ‘mud’, and of mud with gutters, and an equally erroneous association of the Scottish surname Guthrie with the word ‘gutter’. Compare Laffey.