Tartan-wearing conventions among Scots

[O'Callaghan]

I doubt you would be shunned, but you might wind up kicking your own self for not waiting a few years (or weeks or months) until you discover a solid clan connection. I have relatives who have spent hundreds on kilts, kilt pins, clan crests, even clan crest tattooes only to discover that we are not affiliated with the clan they thought we were.

Also, the lists of alleged septs are notoriously unreliable. Some have surnames attributed to several different clans, some have surnames that are more likely to be English or Irish, etc. Many of these sept lists were put together by tartan manufacturers and kilt merchants more interested in profit than acuracy.

There are only two ways to discover which, if any, clan you are associated with. One is genealogical research. The other might be through DNA testing. See www.familytreedna.com for their FAQ.

To me, the tartan is just a statement of that, for better or for worse.

One reason some names are on multiple sept lists is that people of that name in different geographical areas may have been affiliated with different clans. Genealogical research is then necessary to determine where your ancestors came from before you can determine the clan.

Many lowland names are also found on the English side of the border, for the good reason that the border is well South of the ethnic divide between the highlanders and everyone else. Again, genealogical research may find that your ancestors lived in Scotland or not. If you can't find such an origin, it may or may not still exist, and it's on your own conscience whether you claim to belong to the sept (or even clan, as some clans use the English form of a name), but know that if you haven't done the research there is a good chance they were all Sassenachs (as a Sassenach myself, I can safely use that word).

There is one name in my wife's family tree that occurs in the sept lists of three clans, but as far as we know they were only ever English, and so not a sept of any clan. OTOH, going back one more generation she comes to another name that is also a common English name, but is the name of a clan and which she can trace over the border into Scotland. So that is her clan - Davidson. That may not be cast iron proof, but it's close enough for most people.

OTOH, someone else of that name who hasn't researched it may well be a pure Sassenach! I knew a guy called Davidson whose family had lived in the English midlands for as far back as anyone knew, and I don't think he's a member of my wife's clan. There may be wishful American Davidsons sporting the tartan whose forebears came from Coventry, England.

As for Irish names, there are naturally many gaelic names that occur in both places, and the clans in both countries were mostly named after what was originally someone's first name, and later became a last name. For example, there are not only Kennedy clans in both countries, but more than one separate Kennedy line in Ireland, as they derive from men called Cenneidhe, which was a common gaelic first name. In some cases it may be difficult to determine if a name is Irish or Scottish without research. If it is Irish, there may still be an Irish clan sometimes, but probably not a tartan to go with it in most cases.

[gilmore]

One reason some names are on multiple sept lists is that people of that name in different geographical areas may have been affiliated with different clans.
....

"There is no official list of recognised septs. This is a matter for each chief to determine. But where a particular sept has traditionally been associated with a particular clan it would not be appropriate for that name to be treated by another clan chief as one of its septs."

The Court of the Lord Lyon, http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/240.html

and that is that.

[O'Callaghan]

"There is no official list of recognised septs. This is a matter for each chief to determine. But where a particular sept has traditionally been associated with a particular clan it would not be appropriate for that name to be treated by another clan chief as one of its septs."

The Court of the Lord Lyon, http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/240.html

and that is that.

Doesn't actually seem to stop them, though, does it?

[gilmore]

Doesn't actually seem to stop them, though, does it?

Yes, it does. It likely stops the chiefs, chieftans and other well-informed, responsible persons from claiming surnames as their septs that are clearly not associated with their clan. What it doesn't stop is tartan merchants, armchair genealogists, and people bound and determined to be descended from Scots no matter what, from coming up with all sorts of spurious claims.

[BoldHighlander]

Yes, it does. It likely stops the chiefs, chieftans and other well-informed, responsible persons from claiming surnames as their septs that are clearly not associated with their clan. What it doesn't stop is tartan merchants, armchair genealogists, and people bound and determined to be descended from Scots no matter what, from coming up with all sorts of spurious claims.

And yet both the Campbells & the Gordons claim the Muirs (More / Moore / Mure) as septs. However one source states they are no longer officially septs of the House of Gordon, & yet their website still lists them as such. Go figure


from the Campbells website:
The inclusion of the name Mure, Muir, or Moore among Campbell septs is perhaps rather optimistic since the family have a perfectly good Chief of their own in the person of Mure of Rowallan, in Ayrshire, one of Scotland’s oldest and most historic families.

[Bruce Scott]

According to Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, Lord Lyon King of Arms 1945-1968: "septs must be regarded as a rather wonderful effort of imagination"
http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/...lan-septs.html