De-Anglicisation of Names

**freddie** · 9th December 06, 12:02 PM

How about my name Hume ? (or the alternate spelling Home) It is believed that in olden times there was some kind of mark (tilde or umlaut) over the letter 'u', indicating the "oo" sound, and in an old charter the 'u' and it's mark somehow joined to form the letter 'o' - although the name has always been pronounced "Hume". Anyway, one school of thought is that it's from the old Scots gaelic word for a cave (modern spelling uamh I believe) but I always wondered where the first letter 'H' came from. Then under the name MacDuff I found reference to Iain Mhor nan-h-Uamh (spelling may not be correct!), 'Great John of the Cave', a son of one of the old MacDuff Earls of Fife. 'The Great MacDuff' aided Malcolm Canmore to defeat Macbeth in 1056 and granted him lands in The Lothians, which in those days included today's Berwickshire, heartland of the Clan Hume, so could this Cadet line of MacDuff have settled here, built the castle and called his territorial lands h-uamh which became Hume ?. Sounds like this story could be true after all. - What do you think.

**Frank MacDuffy** · 9th December 06, 12:37 PM

Maybe someone can help me, I've run across the name "Oren" in my family tree and all I could find was that it's lowlander. I can't remember where I read that though. That's not actually my name though, that was the name of a Great-Grandfather on my mother's side. I'm a proud McPhee (Macfie) myself!

**gilmore** · 9th December 06, 02:34 PM

Let me run against the tide here with a question that goes the other way. I have never heard how Gilmore was transformed from the Gaelic to Morrison in English. They seem quite different words.

**cloves** · 9th December 06, 03:28 PM

oh this is a really cool thread!

MY own surname is German..it's Steeves...but was Stieff.

Grandmother was Prosser which is Welsh

**ardchoille** · 22nd August 07, 05:28 PM

How about MacGregor? I think the Gaelic is Grioghair.
Grioghair = Greg? Gregor?
MacGregor = Son of Gregor?

It's nice to learn a bit of history

**Rogerson785** · 12th May 08, 10:53 AM

OK, how about Rogerson, AKA the son of Rogers.

**slohairt** · 12th May 08, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Rogerson785

OK, how about Rogerson, AKA the son of Rogers.

ROGERSON Though the Gaelic form of 'Roger' is Roistir (pronounced ROSH-CHER), I have never heard of a patronymic based upon it, be it Irish or Scottish. Rather, I think this might be a 'translated' name. I use this term loosely because for centuries, English names were often substituted for Gaelic names that had no connection whatsoever, barring a vague phonetic similarity. I think this may be a version of the Scottish Gaelic surname Mac Ruairidh (pronounced MAC ROO-AR-EE), usually Anglicised as MacCrory or MacRory.

Then again, if of Lowland origin, it could simply mean Roger's son.

**Paige Moor** · 24th August 08, 12:54 PM

Paige Muir!

**slohairt** · 28th August 08, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by Paige Moor

Paige Muir!

PAIGE Probably occupational, from the term page, meaning attendant. A corresponding Gaelic word would be giolla (IRISH) or gille (SCOTTISH GAELIC-which is rendered in Lowland Scots as Ghillie).

MUIR Sometimes topographical from the Scots word muir, cognitive with English moor, or from the Scottish Gaelic surname Mac Mòrdha meaning son of the great one.

**arrg-isle** · 28th November 08, 11:18 AM

Great thread indeed! This stuff is so cool!
My 5xG grampa sort of showed me how it works, archivally: He was a livestock trade-cargoer, plying a shoreline circuit from his hometown of Machrahanish, to Oban, to Port Logan, to north-coastal Wales, to Co. Antrim in Ireland, and back up around . . anyway, post-Culloden, he began quoting his name as "James Wright" instead of Hamish MacIntyre, as he'd been christened, depending on where he was trading, and/or who he was speaking to; when he quit the open water & retired to the Welsh town of Corwen, he was known to all his neighbors by the name of Wright, even though the family maintained the auld name in their home, and entered all the new children's surname as MacIntyre in the family bible. When his sons emigrated to Massachusetts 20 years later, they were registered as Wrights, dropping the original surname altogether.
Rather, what has confused my researching has been the maternal name of "Burnham"; it would seem to break down quite easily as "home by (or at) the stream", but it's oddly absent from all Scottish & most Irish roles I've found, the closest being the Scottish place name of Birnam . .
Any insight?