Goldie is a Scottish pet form of the old personal name Gold. The Dictionary of American Family Names traces it to a diminutive of the Middle English and Older Scots name Gold.
A “golden” pet name
In medieval Scotland and northern England, Gold was used as a personal name and as a byname, perhaps for someone with golden hair or a bright, prized character. Scots speech loved diminutives ending in -ie, the same ending heard in lassie, laddie and wee Jamie, and Gold with that affectionate ending became Goldie. Once it passed from father to children it became a hereditary surname.
In Scots pronunciation the l in such words was often vocalized, which is why the related form Goudie or Gowdie appears in Scottish records alongside Goldie. The two spellings can belong to the same family, and both should be searched together.
An Irish twist in Antrim
The Dictionary of American Family Names adds that in County Antrim the name Goldie was adopted by some families of the Gaelic surname Mag Ualghairg, better known in English as McGoldrick. An Ulster Goldie may therefore have an entirely different origin from a Scottish one, though seventeenth-century migration from southwest Scotland to Antrim also brought Scottish Goldies across the North Channel.
Goldie in Scottish and Canadian records
FamilySearch’s Family Tree contains several times as many people named Goldie associated with Scotland as with the United States or England. One documented overseas branch is that of the botanist John Goldie, whose Scottish training and later Canadian career are described below.
John Goldie of Kilmarnock and Robert Burns
The Goldie best known to Burns lovers was an Ayrshire writer on religion. John Goldie (1717–1809) lived in Kilmarnock, where he published Essays on Various Subjects, Moral and Divine in 1780, with a second edition five years later. The book became so well known locally that it was nicknamed “Goldie’s Bible.”
Robert Burns, then farming a few miles away at Mossgiel, addressed his verse “Epistle to John Goldie in Kilmarnock” to him, joining the lively religious debates of 1780s Ayrshire. The poem is the main reason Goldie is still remembered today.
John Goldie the botanist
A second John Goldie carried the name into North American science. Trained at the Glasgow Botanic Garden, he traveled through Canada and the northeastern United States collecting plants in the early nineteenth century. The large wood fern he found was named in his honour by the Glasgow botanist William Jackson Hooker and is now known as Dryopteris goldiana, Goldie’s wood fern, and it still bears his name in field guides today. Goldie later settled in Canada, where he died on 23 July 1886.
Sir George Goldie and the Niger
The most politically consequential bearer of the name was born on the Isle of Man. George Goldie, born near Douglas on 20 May 1846, founded the United African Company in 1879 and consolidated it in 1886 into the Royal Niger Company, which he governed from 1895. The company’s charter was revoked on 1 January 1900, when its territories passed to the British government as the protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria. Goldie was a central, and today much debated, figure in the British takeover of the lower Niger. Famously secretive, he destroyed his personal papers before his death in London on 20 August 1925.
Goldie, Goudie and Gold in the records
Because Goldie grew from a personal name, it arose independently in several places, and it can appear as Goldie, Goudie, Gowdie or occasionally Gold in the same family. Old Parish Registers are the key source before 1855; from 1855 Scottish statutory registers give parents’ names and occupations. For Antrim families, church registers and Griffith’s Valuation help show whether a family came from Scotland or from a Gaelic McGoldrick line.
The Goldie name appears on our woven blanket, accent mug and ceramic ornament. Explore our Goldie Scottish family gifts.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Goldie surname mean?
It is a pet form of the old personal name Gold, from Middle English and Older Scots, with the Scots diminutive ending -ie.
Are Goldie and Goudie the same name?
Often, yes. Goudie reflects the Scots pronunciation of Goldie, and one family can appear under both spellings.
Who was John Goldie of Kilmarnock?
A Kilmarnock writer on religion (1717–1809) whose Essays were nicknamed “Goldie’s Bible” and who received a verse epistle from Robert Burns.
Is Goldie a Scottish or Irish name?
It is mainly Scottish, but in County Antrim it was also adopted by some families of the Gaelic McGoldrick name.