Scotland’s 7 Oldest Highland Clan Names – Is Yours Number 1?

The 7 Oldest Highland Clan Surnames Still in Use Today (Origin & Meaning Included)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:15 7, 6
3:46 5, 4
7:18 3, 2, 1
13:42 Other Clans

Do you belong to one of the oldest highland clan names in Scotland? Well these are the 7 Oldest Highland Clan Surnames Still in Use Today, and for this video I have defined oldest in a looser way. I previous made a video on the oldest clan surnames with a much stricter definition, basically when they appear in the historical record for the first time, with many lowland and Norman clans on the list. But in this video I'm not just hunting for the first parchment spelling of the surname as we know it today. Medieval Gaelic naming didn't work like that. A persons identity came through their father, territory, occupation or kindred, and only gradually did some of those identities harden into hereditary surnames.

Instead, I'm looking at the earliest traceable identity behind the modern clan name — sometimes the first written surname, sometimes the man who gave the clan its name, and sometimes a strong tradition preserving an older identity. As long before permanent surnames, Scotland was already divided into named peoples, dynasties and kin-groups that behaved surprisingly like the clans that came later. So this video will define oldest as where tradition and evidence reasonably meet.

Now starting at number seven is one of the most famous Scottish names

Sources:
Clan Macfie - Wikipedia
MacPhee Clan Heritage and Legends
Clan Maclachlan - Wikipedia
The MacLachlan Clan Legacy
Clan Macnab - Wikipedia
History of the MacNab Clan
Clan Gregor - Wikipedia
Gregor "of the Golden Bridles" MacGregor of Glenorchy, 1st Chief of Clan MacGregor (c.1330 - c.1390) - Genealogy
Clan MacAlpine - Wikipedia
MacAlpine Clan Overview
Clan MacMillan - Wikipedia
Gille-Chrisod Gilchrist mac Cormaic 4th born (from whom the MacMillans) (1085–1155)
Clan Donald - Wikipedia

Creative Commons Imagery:
Phil Champion / Old Castle Lachlan and Lachlan Bay / CC BY-SA 2.0 File:Old Castle Lachlan and Lachlan Bay - geograph.org.uk - 1654088.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic - Creative Commons

Scottish clans - Scottish clan surnames - Scottish surnames

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