Irish Kilts

[Morris at Heathfield]

Oh, and let's not forget that the Norsemen might have had something to do with the kilt. The word 'kilt' comes from middle English, but is of Scandinavian origin.....Old Norse...Kjalta.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word "kilt" (or rather "Quelt") to indicate the characteristic garment of the Scottish Highlander was about 1730. If the first wearers of the kilt were Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlanders (which I see no reason to doubt), they wouldn't have had much use for an English word to refer to what they were wearing. As far as I know, the word "kilt" has never entered the Gaelic lexicon, but the Gaelic word plaide was used in English well before the English (and the Lowlanders) were recorded referring to the same thing as a "kilt".

what makes no sense to me is the color schemes for some of these tartans.

Historically speaking, tartans are not livery. Otherwise, you would expect the Campbell tartan to be largely black and yellow, or the Fraser tartan to be largely blue and white. A chief of the Grants once decided to have his men wear red-and-green tartans. This has been described as a "livery", but the Grant arms are red and gold, so it isn't really.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the idea that the colors in a tartan are supposed to mean or represent anything beyond mere esthetic (or possibly practical: e.g. "hunting" tartans) considerations is very recent—about 2005 in the case of the tartans designed using the colors of the Irish counties' arms. Other recent examples of livery tartans are some tartans designed for corporations, or for sports teams.