Scottish Last Names

Stylish way to name your son after basketball great Walt -- though Walt is sounding fresh again too.

Huntley was best known as Brinkley's news partner several decades ago. With the new genre of girls' names that are unusual surnames ending with the lee sound -- think Mosley, Yardley -- Huntley or Huntlea or Huntleigh might rise for girls.

A nickname style name, Neely could derive from the strong sounding Cornelia, as a playful alternative to Nelly from Eleanor and Helena, or as a variation of the Scottish surname McNeilly, with the cool meaning "son of the poet".

This is a both fresher and cooler spin on David.

A rare but distinguished Scottish name. The original Galloway is a region in south-west Scotland, and the meaning ("stranger-Gaels") refers to its mixed population of Scandinavian and Gaelic-speaking people. It later became a surname and a sturdy breed of cattle. Galloway could be a fresh addition to better-known Scottish places like Murray and Ross.

Chisholm is a habitational surname — if it's on your family tree, you have ancestors from Chisholme, Scotland, although they were originally of Norman and Saxon descent.

Romary is most commonly seen as a surname, although it would make a charming first name for a boy or girl. It has French and Scottish origins — the French form is a variation of the given name Romaric and has also been adopted as a surname. The meaning of the Scottish surname is unknown.

A surname very rarely heard as a first, associated with Hall of Fame basketball star Patrick Ewing and, in the 1980s, the oil-rich Ewing family on the nighttime soap, "Dallas"

A softer take on Hunter. Huntley is evenly distributed between girls and boys, coming in at 47% female and 53% male at last count.

This habitational surname works as a modern way to honor a Carrie, Carolyn, or Caroline.

Bulky surname honoring Grandpa Henry or Saul Bellow's Rain King.

This musical surname, associated with Bing Crosby and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, & Nash could easily be used for girls, as names like Jagger and Bowie have been.

Stokes is ultimately an English surname, although it's been used in Ireland and Scotland for generations as well. It's a variation of Stoke, a habitational surname, as there were many towns named Stoke in England. The origin of the word stoke, however, is contested. Some say it simply means "place," while others contest it designated a small hamlet. There's also evidence that connects it to the Old English word stocc, meaning "tree trunk."

Patterson is an upscale name worth considering if you're looking to continue a line of Peters, but soundalike Paterson is a downscale city in New Jersey.

Stuffy presidential choice: consider Hayes instead.

Strong, spare, and highly unusual -- there were no babies recorded of either gender receiving this name in one recent year -- place-name referring to the northernmost state in New England. All state names qualify as distinctly American names.

The Mc and Mac surnames are asserting themselves as first names and this is among the most usable. MacArthur or McArthur makes a perfect honorific for an ancestral Arthur and leads directly to the nicknames Mac or Art