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ArchivesScottish emigrant names help
I'm doing an essay on Scottish emigrant identity and was wondering if, like the Irish and their descendants using Erin etc, there are examples of Scots doing the same? I was thinking of names like Clyde, Skye and maybe Kirk but I don't know when these first appeared and in what context, and I'm not sure how to go about finding out. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction? Thank you
This message was edited 3/24/2007, 1:26 PM
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Census records?
If you have time, you could check early census records.
If you have time, you could check early census records.
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I think that the custom of turning surnames such as Kirk into given names is more widespread in Scotland itself than it would be in Ireland.
I would bet that people with Scottish ancestry in the USA are more likely to give children names that they think are romantically linked to Scotland than other parents are. I think that Heather, Wallace, and Arran might be names with Scottish connections in this way.
Skye seems to have first been used as a girls' name for a particular fictional character, the title character of the 1957 novel Skye Cameron by the American author Phyllis A. Whitney:
http://www.phyllisawhitney.com/Skye%20Cameron.htm
In the novel the character is said to have been given the name because her father was born on the isle of Skye, but whether any non-fictional Skye has received the name because of a similar connection is unknown. :)
I would bet that people with Scottish ancestry in the USA are more likely to give children names that they think are romantically linked to Scotland than other parents are. I think that Heather, Wallace, and Arran might be names with Scottish connections in this way.
Skye seems to have first been used as a girls' name for a particular fictional character, the title character of the 1957 novel Skye Cameron by the American author Phyllis A. Whitney:
http://www.phyllisawhitney.com/Skye%20Cameron.htm
In the novel the character is said to have been given the name because her father was born on the isle of Skye, but whether any non-fictional Skye has received the name because of a similar connection is unknown. :)
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