Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Has anyone noticed how many so called "septs" have appeared recently. Every week seems to bring a new crop. The Buchanan Society lists about 4 names as officially members of the clan (although a number of others have gracious permission to wear the tartan!) but if you look up other sites it appears every Tom, Dick & Harry can be a sept. I wonder if it is these surname distribution sites and if one happens to be in the rough area a clan once existed it automatically becomes a sept - and, of course, another valuable customer for that particular tartan. By the same token, as I once lived in a Buchanan Drive perhaps I too can now claim allegiance to that clan. Facetious, I know, but I wonder how much more meaningful so many of these claims are?
I can tell you I know of three clans that had their names outlawed: Gunn, MacFarlane, & MacGregor. Those members adopted other names in place of "the outlawed name." When this happened to clan Gunn, the chief used the name MacRob/Robson.. Many MacGregors adopted the name of Murray. I forget the name that was more common for the MacFarlanes. For the Gunn's, the name was outlawed by the Earl of Caithness in 1585 AD. The MacFarlane name was outlawed sometime in the 1600's (can't remember exact date). They were dispersed form their lands, and many went to Aberdeen either retaining the name MacFarlane or using another name.

What the clan societies are doing is adding nearly every popular variant spelling of names.