SCOTTISH NAMING TRADITIONS

Genealogists tracing Scottish lines can have a hard time. Civil records don’t start until 1855 and survival rates for baptism, marriage and burial records are patchy before 1700 (visit scotlandspeople.gov. uk to discover what is available online).

But there is one ray of light. Until the late 19th century, many Scots followed naming rules, making it possible to make reasonable inferences. The first son was named after the father’s father ( sometimes mother’s father); the second after the mother’s father (or father’s father), the third after the father, the fourth after the father’s oldest brother (or paternal grandfather) and the fifth after the mother’s oldest brother ( or mother’s paternal grandfather).

Daughters followed a similar pattern with the first being named after the mother’s mother, the second named after the father’s mother and the third named after the mother.

Parts of Scotland remained a ‘clan society’ for much longer than England. ‘Kinship bonds’ were crucial and anyone who was ‘kin’ had to help you. It paid to know who your ancestors were. According to historian John B Robb, there was an ancestral naming pattern in some areas where children were named after increasingly distant ancestors: the first two sons followed the normal tradition, but the third son was named after his father’s father’s father, the fourth after his mother’s mother’s father and the fifth named after the father’s mother’s father and so on.