The surname game

Published on Saturday 21 October 2006 00:34

Why did the names Ozet, Ozat and Ossit in Fife disappear in the 1700s, to be replaced by Oswald? The last recorded Ozat marriage was in 1754, the last birth in 1759. I and K Oswald (Peeblesshire)

Permanent surnames began to be used in Scotland around the 12th century, but were mainly the preserve of the upper echelons of Scottish society. It gradually became necessary to distinguish all people by more than just the given name, leading to the use of surnames. In some Highland areas, though, fixed surnames did not become the norm until the 18th century.

There are many influences on Scottish surnames and often more than one has resulted in the surname that we know today. It is therefore very difficult to attribute sources for surnames with complete certainty. Some of the influences thought to have contributed to the surnames we have today include foreign influences, locations and occupations, as well as patronymics (a son or daughter's surname deriving from the father's forename).

When looking through records, especially early ones, you can find many variations for the same surname. Early spellings will almost always differ from later ones as standardisation of surname spelling is a fairly recent phenomenon. You will almost always come across transcription errors too. This is a problem that has existed since written records began and is by far the main cause of surname variation, creating instability in the surname pool and giving rise to new surnames or strange variations of existing ones. One example is the name Macdonald, and the pronunciation of its Gaelic form Mac Dhomhnuill, which gave rise to numerous recorded variants such as M'conill, M'oneill, Makconeil.

If the person recording a surname (most often a clergyman, session clerk, court clerk, registrar or census enumerator) was unfamiliar with the accent of the informant or the spelling of a name, particularly those of Gaelic origins, they might record the name incorrectly. Thus Montgomery is written as Muntgumrie, Farquharson becomes Farcharson, Chisholm becomes Chism and a Scottish registrar hearing the name O'Malley in an Irish accent might be excused for recording it as O'Mully. Remember too that many people in this period could not read and that if the informant was illiterate, then any mistakes would stand unchallenged and uncorrected. Lowland clergymen in charge in the Highlands or the Shetland Isles sometimes took the opportunity to anglicise a name in the records. In your case, you may therefore find a clergyman unfamiliar with the surname, changing it to something he is familiar with.

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