top Scottish boy's names

[ThistleDown]

Rex, in more than 70 years, with a reasonable amount of travel across six continents and working in the commercial theater/trade show business
working with the gamut from uneducated and often willfully ignorant stagehands from across the world to the CEOs and VPs from across the world
who run the evil empire , I've never heard cawlin. I've also never personally known a koelin. I have, though, known and heard the pronunciation
kah lin, as in Collin with two Ls, whether spelled (or spelt) with one or two. As you and your ear and sensibility are one of my mainstays on this forum,
I think some of this is just how we as individuals perceive the same heard or seen event. As in Peking/Beijing and Kolkata/ Calcutta.

Experiences differ, for sure, just as places of abode and influences of the local tongue do, but until Colin Powell came along I had never heard it pronounced koe-lin in the UK, Ireland or Canada. In Scotland, Canada and Ireland it's pronounced caw-lin. Lots of Colins among the Campbells, just as there are many Kenneths among the Mackenzies, Donalds among the Macdonalds, Lachlans among the Mackintoshes, Ewans among the Macphersons and Gregors among the Macgregors. But, in my experience, no Colins with a double-l. The Campbell popularity is from the 13C Cailean Mor, of course.

As for Alan as a given name, that's certainly how it is generally spelled in Scotland, although perhaps if it is a surname taken on as a given it might appear as Allan or Allan to fit its origin. Just not traditionally. Names such as Kenneth, Donald, Gregor, Colin are the anglised Gaelic forms of Coinneach, Domhnall, Greogair, Cailean, so if we are speaking here of 'Scottish' boys' names the spelling and pronunciation would be as in Scotland.

I guess that if Colin is pronounced koe-lin in America that explains why Americans prefer Allan over Alan. The latter would have to be Ay-lin

Want to have a go at Aeneas? A popular name in 18C and 19C Scotland; it almost never appeared in another language than Greek and is now out of style even in Scotland.

[macmanjim]

I gave my kids pretty standard names. Benjamin, Olivia, Mary, Evelyn and Caroline. Wife is a Mary, I am a James. No odd names there. Mom was a Florence Violet, Dad Anthony. Antonio really. Grandparents were Luigi/Maddalena and Ezra/Violet. Funny thing is they called Luigi Tony and Ezra went by his middle name too, Benjamin. Not sure I'd dig Ezra or Luigi. Lots of kids in my kids classes have trendy names, like casey, cody, taylor, stuff like that. It's good to see the standards are doing well.