8 items

• Clan Carruthers History, Motto & Origins: Mouswald Tower, Annandale & Scottish Heritage

  Discover the history, motto, and origins of Clan Carruthers — a Dumfriesshire Border family rooted in Annandale and Mouswald Tower, bearers of the motto Promptus et Fidelis, and participants in...

• 20 Lesser-Known Celtic Surnames With Powerful Origin Stories (2026)

  The Celtic world doesn't stop at any single border. Scotland and Ireland are distinct nations with their own histories, politics, and identities, but they share something deep and old —...

• Sellar History & Origins: A Saddler's Name, Patrick Sellar & the Sutherland Clearances

  Sellar is a Lowland occupational surname: saddler, seller or cellarer, and the dictionaries do not choose between them. It is also the name of the Sutherland factor tried at Inverness...

• Warrand History & Origins: A Warren Variant, the Inverness Connection & a Very Rare Scottish Spelling

  Warrand is filed by the dictionaries as Warren with an added d, a Norman name in a Scottish spelling. Only twelve bearers appear in the 1901 Scottish census index. What...

• McCormick Irish Surname: History, Origins & Heritage of an Ulster Name

  McCormick is the Ulster spelling of Mac Cormaic, “son of Cormac,” most common in County Antrim and Down. Here is what the name means, why the north writes it with...

• Rogerson History & Origins: Son of Roger, Dumfriesshire & the Physician to Catherine the Great

  John Rogerson left a farm near Lochmaben and became personal physician to Catherine the Great. The fame-spear behind the name Roger, the Annandale record, and why Rogerson is neither a...

• Rome History & Origins: The Annandale Question, the Pilgrim Reading & Scottish Heritage

  Every account of the surname Rome points to Annandale and none of them points to a map reference. What the dictionaries record, what the Dumfriesshire gazetteers do not, and which...

• Carr History & Origins: The Kerr Connection, the Borders & Scottish Heritage

  Where Carr and Kerr are genuinely the same name and where they are not: Robert Carr of Ferniehirst, the Border wardens of Teviotdale, the northern English marsh word behind the...