Orkney Family Names
by Gregor Lamb

What’s in a name?

A lot more than meets the eye, in reading Gregor Lamb’s latest publication Orkney Family Names.

This list of surnames is limited to those of the families who moulded the distinctive Orcadian character in centuries past - names which clearly originated in Orkney, or can be traced in known records before the year 1700.

Many are familiar and still in use - Seatter, Matches, Gibson and Costie, to name a few. Others, such as Glup, Birnigarth, Benzieroth and Scartane have died out and are strange-sounding to our ears.

The glossary of nearly 600 surnames with their origins which forms the first half of the book will prove a most useful reference for those interested in their family origins. The second half of the book consists of essays which set the whole subject in perspective and deserve careful study.

The names of those who settled the islands in Neolithic times and of succeeding generations over some 5,000 years are long gone, obliterated by invading Norse. The Norse did not have permanent surnames.

In order to save confusion in a common name, the father’s name might be attached—thus Sveinn Olafsson (son of Olaf), or Janet Williamsdochter (daughter of William). This type of surname changed with every generation, so was of no use in recording relationships - the practice died out in the 17th century.

Sometimes the Norse used a distinguishing nickname - thus Thorkell Rostung (walrus), whose moustache may have resembled the tusks of a walrus! Otherwise, a man might have the name of his farm attached. In the early 15th century Rentals we find such examples as Arling of Pow and Thrond of Ireland, but these were not fixed permanently.

Permanent surnames, common in England from the 12th century, began appearing in Orkney from the end of the 14th century. This seems to have been accelerated by incoming Scots, particularly merchants seeking to profit from the dried cod markets of Iceland and Norway.

They brought with them territorial names such as Leask, Irvine, Garrioch and Murray. Sometimes among Orcadians the father’s name was adopted permanently, such as Adamson (son of Adam), or the name was taken from the farm of district, e.g. Linklater from the tunship in Sandwick. From small beginnings at the end of the 14th century, surnames were increasingly common in the 16th century.

While some Orkney surnames based on place-names, such as Clouston and Flaws, are unique, some other Orkney names are not. Thus the name Scarth is not uncommon in Yorkshire where the Norse also left their influence - Old Norse skard, a gap in the hills.

Where a surname is adopted from a place-name, it can sometimes be used as a guide to the original pronunciation of the place-name which has been changed over the centuries.

Thus the name Scollay or Scollie appears to preserve the original pronunciation of Skaill; the now extinct surname of Flattay for Flotta. There are many more examples.

Strangely, some of the long established Orkney names were the indirect result of the Norman Conquest of England. King David I encouraged Norman aristocracy to move from England to Scotland.

Among them were the St Clairs, who in the 14th century became earls of Orkney under the Norwegian crown. Many of the earl’s tenantry adopted the name Sinclair, now one of Orkney’s most common names.

Another such name is Louttit, originally a Norman-French family from Luvetot in Normandy, who were granted lands in Nottingham by William the Conqueror. The name is known to have existed in Orkney since at least the early 15th century.

The name Towers or Towrie appears to derive from the French town of Tours. It was widely known in Orkney by the late 15th century.

Some well-known Orkney surnames are puzzling. Drever, formerly spelt as Dravar or Drayver, relates to Westray but probably has a place-name origin in the Thrave/Treb earthen wall place-names of Sanday and Stronsay. Lamb concludes that the name Flett “is derived from a vanished place-name Flet as in Shetland dialect flet, a strip of arable land”.

This book is a much revised replacement for Orkney Surnames by the same author, published in 1981 by Paul Harris - now out-of-print.

The writer acknowledges significant contributions to this new publication from Margaret Watters, James Irvine, Walt Custer and John Moar.

Both the author, Gregor Lamb, and the publisher, Stewart Davidson, of Bellavista Publications, are to be congratulated on a scholarly, well-presented and readable hardback, as an essential work of reference for the Orkney bookshelf.

Bryce Wilson