I'm not Scottish

[O'Callaghan]

Persons seeking US citizenship are required to make a formal renunciation of their former citizenship; the position regarding US citizens taking up foreign citizenship is slightly different. The position seems to be that, if traveling abroad on other than a US passport, the individual is deemed to have elected different citizenship, and is therefor of no concern to the US government. If a US citizen acquires foreign citizenship by residence abroad, in so far as he still is required to pays his taxes in the US, he is still regarded as a US citizen regardless of the status accorded him in the host country. Should a US citizen, a bona fide non-resident of the United States, take up foreign nationality he must formally resign his US citizenship or he will continue to be regarded as a US citizen. However, even having resigned his citizenship, he will still be subject to US tax laws for a period of five years after the date of the resignation of citizenship.

One other caveat is that even though the person claiming dual nationality may be wearing a kilt, that is no guarantee that the moderators won't flag this thread for getting waaay off topic.

I don't think it's that far off topic. The subject was can you say you are Scottish if you aren't from there. My take is that you can, but only if you can claim to be a Brit via somebody else who was born in Scotland. I'm simply ignoring subjective opinions and looking at what the law says, adjusting slightly for the fact that since 1707 there ain't no such thing as Scottish citizenship.

This leads into whether you are actually allowed to be both a Brit plus whatever else you may be. The US rule prohibits it, but the UK doesn't recognise any rule against dual citizenship per se, and the rule against being a citizen of two commonwealth countries, which I think the UK still recognises, is no longer recognised by Canada, apparently, so it seems you can be a Scottish Canadian or a Scottish American in actual fact, not just in a loose sense meaning only by descent, notwithstanding any renunciation you might make in the US that the UK won't recognise.