...and do get ready for the perennial question:

"Is that your family tartan?"

(My current favorite answer is: "No...are those your family blue jeans?")

...because that's the only thing that most people know about tartan...and there you can correct them and say "not family...CLAN."

So if it isn't a tartan to which you have a family connection, you find yourself trying to explain things and, in my experience, it always seems to end up sounding like you're making a somewhat lame excuse. It's almost better to lie completely and baldfacedly and make up a clan if that's what it takes to quelch the question...but, of course, being the polite and honest gents and ladies that we are, an Xmarkser would never do anything like that....no matter how much we are tempted and the nosy no-it-all deserves it!

Look into things and see if you have a family connection somewhere...almost everybody on the planet seems to have at least one Scottish relative somewhere...if not, think about District Tartans...I, myself, crave both the Ulster and the Ayrshire District tartans and have family connections to both. If all else fails there are always the "universal" tartans and there are several really smashing ones. But as several posters have already said, if you know about what you're wearing, it's actually okay...rather a compliment to the clan, I think.

Best

AA