Scottish Submitted Surnames
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.
ABERCROMBIE ScottishDerived from a surname. It is the name of a parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Frith of Forth, whence the possessor took his surname; from Aber, marshy ground, a place where two or more streams meet; and cruime or crombie, a bend or crook...
[more] ABERNATHY ScottishA different form of
Abernethy, which originally meant "person from Abernethy", Perth and Kinross ("confluence of the (river) Nethy"). This was one of the surnames of the Scots who settled in northern Ireland during the ‘plantation’ in the 17th century, and it was brought to the U.S. as the name of a Southern plantation owner.
AFFLECK Galician, ScottishVariation of Auchinleck, a town near Dundee, Scotland... Ben & Casey Affleck are famous bearers of the name. Auchinleck appears to have been one of those places where the ancient Celts and Druids held conventions, celebrated their festivals, and performed acts of worship...
[more] AGNEW ScottishScottish (of Norman origin): habitational name from Agneaux in Manche, France....
[more] ALARDYCE ScottishScottish regional surname meaning "southern cliff". From the Gaelic
all 'cliff' and
deas 'southern'.
ALBANY Scottish, English (American)From the title of the Dukes of Albany (House of Stuart), hence a name borne by their retainers. It is an infrequent surname in England and Scotland. The city of Albany, NY (formerly the Dutch settlement of Beverwijck or Fort Orange) was named for James Stuart, Duke of York and Albany; he was the brother of King Charles II and later king in his own right as James II...
[more] ALBEE ScottishMeans either "son of the blond one" or "son of Alpin".
ALFORD English, ScottishHabitation name found in Lincolnshire, Surrey and Somerset, England and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The name can be derived by combining the Old English female personal name
Ealdg- and
-ford meaning "water crossing" or can mean "from the alder tree ford".
APPLEGARTH English, ScottishTopographic name from northern Middle English applegarth meaning "apple orchard" (Old Norse apaldr meaning "apple tree" + gar{dh}r meaning "enclosure"), or a habitational name from a place so named, of which there are examples in Cumbria and North and East Yorkshire, as well as in the county of Dumfries.
ARD ScottishHabitational name from any of several places called Aird, including one near Hurlford in Ayrshire, another near Stranraer in Galloway, and the Aird, the higher part of the Vale of Beauly, near Inverness...
[more] ARGYLE ScottishMeans "person from Argyll", a region of south-western Scotland ("coastland of the Gaels").
ARMOUR Scottish, Northern IrishFrom Middle English, Old French
armure, blended with the agent noun
armer (see
Armer), hence an occupational name for a maker of arms and armor. The collective noun armure denoted offensive weapons as well as the more recently specialized sense of protective gear.
BALFOUR ScottishOriginating from several place names in Scotland. Derived from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "village pasture".
BARR Scottish, Northern IrishHabitational name from any of various places in southwestern Scotland, in particular Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, named with Gaelic
barr "height, hill" or a British cognate of this.
BATHGATE Scottish, EnglishFrom the town of Bathgate, west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The town's name derives from Cumbric
*beith, meaning 'boar' (Welsh
baedd) and
*gaith. meaning 'wood' (Welsh
coed).
BAY English, French, Dutch, Scottish, German, Danish, NorwegianEnglish, French, and Dutch: nickname for someone with chestnut or auburn hair, from Middle English, Old French
bay,
bai, Middle Dutch
bay ‘reddish brown’ (Latin
badius, used originally of horses)....
[more] BILSLAND ScottishFrom a place near Kilmaurs in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Allegedly a combination of
BIL and
land "farm, land, property".
BIRNIE ScottishPart of the clan MacInnes from the Scottish highlands. It was originally the name of a church (Burn-nigh) which became Birnie or Birney.
BOGLE Scottish, Northern IrishFrom a medieval Scottish and Northern Irish nickname for someone of scary appearance (from Middle Scots
bogill "hobgoblin").
BOLDY ScottishThis is a name for someone who lived in Peeblesshire.
BONAR Scottish, Northern IrishFrom a medieval nickname for a courteous or good-looking person (from Middle English
boner "gentle, courteous, handsome"). A notable bearer of the surname was Canadian-born British Conservative politician Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), prime minister 1922-23.
BOWIE Scottish GaelicScots Gaelic
Bhuidhe or
Buidhe meaning "golden yellow". Name was originally
Mac Gille Bhuid, meaning "son of the yellow-haired lad". It was shortened to
MacilBuie and
MacilBowie in the 1600's, and further shortened in the 1700's to
Buie and anglicised to Bowie by English speaking census takers and record keepers on the Scottish mainland.
BOYDSTON ScottishHabitational name from a place called Boydston near Glasgow. This surname is no longer found in the British Isles.
BRATTEN Scottish (Anglicized)Anglicized form of the Gaelic surname Mac an Bhreatnaich ‘son of the Briton’, originally denoting a Strathclyde Welsh-speaking Briton. It was applied in Ireland also to people from Brittany.
BYERS Scottish, EnglishScottish and northern English topographic name for someone who lived by a cattleshed, Middle English
byre, or a habitational name with the same meaning, from any of several places named with Old English
b¯re, for example Byers Green in County Durham or Byres near Edinburgh.
CAIRNS ScottishFrom Gaelic
carn "cairn", a topographic name for someone who lived by a cairn, i.e. a pile of stones raised as a boundary marker or a memorial.
CARLIN Irish (Anglicized), Scottish, French, Swedish, Italian, Jewish (Anglicized), GermanIrish (now also common in Scotland) anglicized form of Gaelic
Ó Cairealláin, an Ulster family name, also sometimes Anglicized as
Carlton, meaning ‘descendant of Caireallán’, a diminutive of the personal name
Caireall...
[more] CARNEGIE ScottishHabitational name from a place called Carnegie, near Carmyllie in Angus, from Gaelic
cathair an eige "fort at the gap".
CARRICK ScottishThe possible roots of the Carrick family name may be from the ancient Strathclyde people of the the Scottish/English Borderlands. Carrick may also be of local origin, referring to those who lived in or near the place called Carrick in Ayrshire...
[more] CARRINGTON English, ScottishEnglish: habitational name from a place in Greater Manchester (formerly in Cheshire) called Carrington, probably named with an unattested Old English personal name
Cara +
-ing- denoting association +
tun ‘settlement’....
[more] CARRUTHERS ScottishThis old Scottish surname was first used by Strathclyde-Briton people. The Carruthers family in the land of Carruthers in the parish of Middlebie, Dumfriesshire. In that are it is pronounced 'Cridders'....
[more] CARUTHERS ScottishMeans "Rhydderch's fort" in Cumbric. This might refer to the king of Alt Clut, Rhydderch Hael.
CASSEY Scottish, IrishThis surname originated around ancient Scotland and Ireland. In its Gaelic form it is called, 'O Cathasaigh', which means 'the watchful one'....
[more] CHALMERS ScottishVariant of
Chambers. The -l- was originally an orthographic device to indicate the length of the vowel after assimilation of -mb- to -m(m)-.
CINNAMOND Scottish, Irish, EnglishPossibly originates from Scottish place name Kininmonth. Probably introduced to Northern Ireland by Scottish settlers where it remains in Ulster. Another origin is the French place name Saint Amand originated from French Huguenots settling in Ireland.
CLERIHEW ScottishA Scottish surname of unknown origin and meaning. A clerihew is a humorous or satirical verse consisting of two rhyming couplets in lines of irregular metre about someone who is named in the poem. It was invented by the British author Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956; Clerihew was his mother's maiden name)...
[more] CLYDE ScottishA river in the south-west of Scotland, running through Inverclyde, Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, and the city of Glasgow. The second longest in Scotland; and the eighth longest in the United Kingdom...
[more] COBAIN ScottishThis unusual surname is of Old Norse origin and is found particularly in Scotland. It derives from an Old Norse personal name
Kobbi, itself from an element meaning large, and the Gaelic
bain, denoting a fair person, with the diminutive ('little' or 'son of') form
Cobbie.
COCHRANE Scottish, Scottish Gaelic, IrishDerived from the 'Lowlands of Cochrane' near Paisley, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Origin is uncertain, the theory it may have derived from the Welsh
coch meaning "red" is dismissed because of the historical spelling of the name
Coueran....
[more] COLDEN English, ScottishEnglish: habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire named Colden, from Old English
cald ‘cold’
col ‘charcoal’ +
denu ‘valley’....
[more] CONWAY Welsh, Scottish, IrishAs a Welsh surname, it comes from the name of a fortified town on the coast of North Wales (Conwy formerly Conway), taken from the name of the river on which it stands. The river name
Conwy may mean "holy water" in Welsh....
[more] CORBETT English, Scottish, WelshNickname from Norman French
corbet meaning 'little crow, raven'. This surname is thought to have originated in Shropshire. The surname was taken by bearers to Scotland in the 12th Century, and to Northern Ireland in the 17th Century....
[more] COWIE Scottishhabitational name from any of several places, especially one near Stirling, named Cowie, probably from Gaelic colldha, an adjective from coll ‘hazel’
CRABB English, Scottish, German, Dutch, DanishEnglish and Scottish, from Middle English crabbe, Old English
crabba ‘crab’ (the crustacean), a nickname for someone with a peculiar gait. English and Scottish from Middle English
crabbe ‘crabapple (tree)’ (probably of Old Norse origin), hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a crabapple tree...
[more] CRANSTON ScottishCombination of the Old English byname
Cran "crane" and Old English
tun "settlement".
CRAW English, Scottish, Northern IrishOne who had characteristics of a crow; sometimes used as an element of a place name e.g. Crawford, and Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire, Crawshawbooth in Lancashire, and Crawley in Sussex
CROCKETT English, ScottishNickname for someone who affected a particular hairstyle, from Middle English
croket ''large curl'' (Old Norman French
croquet, a diminutive of
croque "curl", "hook").
CROOK Scottish, EnglishPossible origin a medieval topographical surname, denoting residence from the Middle English word "crok" from the Old NOrse "Krokr". Possibly a maker or seller of hooks. Another possibility is meaning crooked or bent originally used of someone with a hunch back.
CROY ScottishMeans "person from Croy", the name of various places in Scotland.
CRUIKSHANK ScottishFrom a medieval Scottish nickname for someone with a crooked leg (from Scots
cruik "bent" +
shank "leg"). This was the surname of British caricaturist George Cruikshank (1792-1872) and British actor Andrew Cruikshank (1907-1988).
CULBERT Anglo-Saxon, Irish, English, ScottishMeaning and origin are uncertain. Edward MacLysaght (The Surnames of Ireland, 1999, 6th Ed., Irish Academic Press, Dublin, Ireland and Portland, Oregon, USA) states that this surname is of Huguenot (French Protestant) origin, and found mainly in Ireland's northern province of Ulster...
[more] CURRIE Scottish, IrishIrish: Habitational name from Currie in Midlothian, first recorded in this form in 1230. It is derived from Gaelic
curraigh, dative case of
currach ‘wet plain’, ‘marsh’. It is also a habitational name from Corrie in Dumfriesshire (see
Corrie)....
[more] DALGLIESH ScottishScottish habitational name from a place near Selkirk, first recorded in 1383 in the form Dalglas, from Celtic
dol- ‘field’ +
glas ‘green.’
DALHOUSIE ScottishMeant "person from Dalhousie", near Edinburgh (perhaps "field of slander").
DALZIEL ScottishMeans "person from Dalyell", in the Clyde valley (probably "white field"). The name is standardly pronounced "dee-el". A fictional bearer is Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel, one half of the detective team of 'Dalziel and Pascoe' in the novels (1970-2009) of Reginald Hill.
DARLING Literature, English, ScottishEnglish and Scottish: from Middle English
derling, Old English
deorling ‘darling’, ‘beloved one’, a derivative of
deor ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ (see
Dear). This was quite a common Old English byname, which remained current as a personal name into the 14th century...
[more] DODIE Scottish (Modern)Dodie is a Scottish shortening of the name "Dorothy" it is quite rare and one of the only famous people with this name is the singer/songwrite Dodie Clark.
DOMINIE ScottishOccupational name for a church schoolmaster, from Latin
domine, a vocative form of
dominus, "lord" "master".
DON ScottishDon derives from the Old Gaelic "donn", brown, or the Old English pre 7th Century "dunn", brown, or the Old English pre 7th Century "dunn", dull brown or dark, and was originally given as a distinguishing nickname to someone with dark hair or a swarthy complexion.
DOSSAT English, ScottishPossibly from French origins (used predominantly in Louisiana in the United States).
DRUM ScottishHabitational name from a place and castle in Aberdeenshire named from Gaelic
druim "ridge".
DUGUID ScottishProbably "do good", from a Scottish nickname for a well-intentioned person or (ironically) a do-gooder.
DUNDAS Scottish, Northern IrishScottish and northern Irish (Counties Leitrim and Fermanagh): habitational name from Dundas, a place near Edinburgh, Scotland, which is named from Gaelic
dùn ‘hill’ +
deas ‘south’.
DUNNE Irish, English, ScottishThis surname means dark and was likely given to those with a dark complexion or with dark hair.
DURWARD English, Scottish (?)Means "guardian of the door, door-keeper" (cf.
Durward). A fictional bearer of the surname is Quentin Durward, eponymous hero of the novel (1823) by Sir Walter Scott.
EDMINSTEIRE Scottishjohn edminsteire was a person captured at the battle of dunbar in 1651 and shipped to boston in 1652 on the ship john and sarah. we can find no previous record of the edminsteire name. conjecture from f.custer edminster that did the geneology is it is a combination of french and german names and originated from people that migrated to scotland with mary queen of scots about 100 years earlier.
EDMISTON ScottishHabitational name from Edmonstone, near Edinburgh, so named from the Old English personal name Ēadmund + tūn meaning "settlement".
ESPLIN ScottishScottish variant of
Asplin. This was borne by the English stained glass artist and muralist Mabel Esplin (1874-1921).
FARISH Scottish"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.
FERRIER ScottishScottish: 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.
FIELD English, Scottish, Irish, Jewish (Anglicized)English: topographic name for someone who lived on land which had been cleared of forest, but not brought into cultivation, from Old English
feld ‘pasture’, ‘open country’, as opposed on the one hand to
æcer ‘cultivated soil’, ‘enclosed land’ (see
Acker) and on the other to
weald ‘wooded land’, ‘forest’ (see
Wald)...
[more] FIRTH English, Scottish, WelshEnglish and Scottish: topographic name from Old English
(ge)fyrhþe ‘woodland’ or ‘scrubland on the edge of a forest’....
[more] FITCH ScottishThe 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
FLETT ScottishProbably 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] FORGIE ScottishPossibly a variant of
Fergie or a shortened form of
Ferguson. It could also be a habitational name from a place so named in Scotland.
FORSYTHE Scottish, IrishAnglicized form of the Gaelic personal name
Fearsithe, composed of the elements
fear ‘man’ +
sith ‘peace’. Some early forms with prepositions, as for example William de
Fersith (Edinburgh 1365), seem to point to an alternative origin as a habitational name, but no place name of suitable form is known...
[more] FORTUNE ScottishOriginally meant "person from Fortune", Lothian ("enclosure where pigs are kept").
GALBRAITH Scottish, Scottish GaelicEthnic 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.
GALL Scottish, Irish, EnglishNickname, 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] GALLOWAY ScottishScottish: 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] GEDDES Scottish, IrishThere is a place of this name in Nairn, but the name is more likely to be a patronymic from Geddie.
GILLESPIE Scottish, IrishGillespie 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] GLADSTONE ScottishHabitational name from a place near Biggar in Lanarkshire, apparently named from Old English gleoda meaning "kite" + stān meaning "stone".
GLASS Irish, ScottishAnglicized form of the epithet
glas "gray, green, blue" or any of various Gaelic surnames derived from it.
GLENDENNING ScottishHabitational 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".
GOW ScottishOccupational name from Gaelic
gobha "smith".
GRADEN ScottishHabitational name from the lands of Graden in Berwickshire.
GRANT English, ScottishFrom a medieval personal name, probably a survival into Middle English of the Old English byname
Granta (see
Grantham).
GRASS ScottishOccupational name, reduced from Gaelic
greusaiche "shoemaker". A certain John Grasse alias
Cordonar (Middle English
cordewaner "shoemaker") is recorded in Scotland in 1539.
GUNN ScottishThis ancient Scottish surname is of Norweigan origin derived from the Old Norse personal name
Gunnr. This surname, in most cases originated in Caithness, Scotland's most northerly county.
GUTHRIE Scottish, Irish, GermanScottish: 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’....
[more] HAILES Scottish, EnglishScottish habitational name from Hailes in Lothian, originally in East Lothian, named from the Middle English genitive or plural form of
hall ‘hall’. ...
[more] HALIBURTON ScottishMeans "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] HAM English, German, Scottish, Anglo-SaxonAnglo-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.
HAMILL ScottishHabitational name from Haineville or Henneville in Manche, France, named from the Germanic personal name
Hagano + Old French
ville "settlement".
HARCUS ScottishOrcadian form of Harcase, a habitational name originating from Berwickshire, Scotland.
HARKNESS Scottish, English (British), Northern IrishApparently 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] HARTLEY English, ScottishDerived from the Old English words meaning
heorot meaning "hart" and
leah meaning "clearing". Also from Scottish
Ó hArtghaile meaning "descendant of Artghal".
Hartley is also an English given name.
HARWOOD English, ScotsHabitation 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] HAWTHORNE English, ScottishEnglish and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a bush or hedge of hawthorn (Old English
haguþorn,
hægþorn, i.e. thorn used for making hedges and enclosures, Old English
haga, (ge)hæg), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Hawthorn in County Durham...
[more] HAY English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, FrisianScottish 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] HIDDLESTON English, ScottishHabitational name from a place called Huddleston in Yorkshire, England. The place name was derived from the Old English personal name
HUDEL.
HIND English, ScottishEnglish (central and northern): nickname for a gentle or timid person, from Middle English, Old English
hind ‘female deer’....
[more] HOLLIDAY ScottishAn 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.
HOOD English, Scottish, IrishEnglish 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] HUTTON English, ScottishScottish and northern English habitational name from any of the numerous places so called from Old English
hoh ‘ridge’, ‘spur’ +
tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.
HYSLOP ScottishHabitational 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’.
INVERARITY ScottishMeans "person from Inverarity", Angus ("mouth of the
Arity", perhaps a Celtic river-name meaning literally "slow").
IRELAND English, ScottishEthnic 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] KELSO ScottishHabitational name from Kelso on the river Tweed in Roxburghshire, perhaps so named from Old English
cealc "chalk" +
hoh "ridge", "spur".
KELTON ScottishScottish habitational name from the village of Kelton in the parish of the same name in Kirkcudbrightshire.
KELTY ScottishFrom the name of a village in Fife, Scotland, which was derived from Scottish Gaelic
coillte "wooded area, grove".
KENTIE Scottish, English, DutchOrigin 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] KILGORE ScottishHabitational name for someone from Kilgour in Fife, named with the Gaelic
coille "wood" and
gobhar,
gabhar "goat".
KINCAID ScottishScottish habitational name from a place near Lennoxtown, north of Glasgow, which is first recorded in 1238 as
Kincaith and in 1250 as
Kincathe. The former spelling suggests derivation from Gaelic
ceann ‘head’, ‘top’ +
càithe ‘pass’, whereas the latter would point to
cadha ‘quagmire’ as the second element.
KIRKLAND English, ScottishDerived 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] KYLE ScottishScottish and northern Irish regional name from a district in Ayrshire called Kyle, named for the British chieftains who ruled it in the 5th century, the Coel Hen. Also, habitational name from any of the numerous Scottish places named Kyle from Gaelic caol ‘narrow’, also caolas ‘narrows’, ‘strait’ - similar to
Kyles LAING ScottishScottish form of
LANG. A famous bearer was the explorer Alexander Gordon Laing.
LAMOND ScottishScottish classical pianist and composer; Henry George Lamond has this surname. It means lawyer.
LAUDER Scottish, Northern IrishFrom 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'.
LAWLER Irish, ScottishThis 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] LECKEY Scottish, English, IrishOriginally 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.
LEMON English, Northern Irish, ScottishEnglish: from the Middle English personal name
Lefman, Old English
Leofman, composed of the elements
leof ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ +
mann ‘man’, ‘person’. This came to be used as a nickname for a lover or sweetheart, from Middle English
lem(m)an...
[more] LIDDINGTON English, Scottish (Rare)This surname is derived from a geographical locality. "of Liddington", a parish in Rutland, near Uppingham; a parish in Wiltshire, near Swindon.
LINKLATER ScottishScottish (Orkney) habitational name from either of two places named Linklater (in South Ronaldsay and North Sandwick).
LITTLEJOHN Scottish, EnglishDistinguishing epithet for the smallest of two or more bearers of the common personal name
John. Compare
Meiklejohn. In some cases the nickname may have been bestowed on a large man, irrespective of his actual personal name, in allusion to the character in the Robin Hood legend, whose nickname was of ironic application....
[more] LIVINGSTON English, ScottishThis surname is thought to be derived from Middle English
Levingestun meaning "Leving's town" or "Leving's settlement."
LIVINGSTONE Scottish, Irish, JewishScottish: 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]