Clan advice and maybe tartan

[Father Bill]

Don't get too wrapped up with clan affiliations. A surname is only a starting point and you need to know the area of Scotland where your ancestors originated. Being in a clan was not like joining the golf club or the Masonic Lodge - the was no joining fee or initiation rite. If you lived in the lands under the control of a chief of a particular clan then you would have been assumed to be a member of that clan, irrespective of what name you had.
The advantages of this for you would have been a degree of protection from the depredations of neighbouring clans but the downside would be the requirement to fight on the chief's behalf when required.
This whole clan thing is a bit of a minority interest here in Scotland and seems to have captured the imagination much more in your country where even new clans have been invented for lowland Borders families where none existed in the past. Bell of the borders is one such case in point.
Best to look upon it as joining a social club and choose the clan affiliation that has the most suitable activities etc. for you. Apart from that, clans really have little relevance nowadays.

Which is why, historically and socially I'm wearing Sinclair. The extremely unusual and provably historical family name in Caithness and the Orkneys is sufficient for me, and they've welcomed me as if I'd been lost for centuries.

[creagdhubh]

P.S. This has got to be the greatest website ever. I'm so used to rude and mean people on the internet. Its refreshing to find a place where people are civil and inviting, not to mention encouraging. Thank you all for being so amazing!!

[Friday]

This has got to be the greatest website ever. I'm so used to rude and mean people on the internet. Its refreshing to find a place where people are civil and inviting, not to mention encouraging. Thank you all for being so amazing!!

Even when we disagree, which is often, normally it is done with as much class as possible. So join in and express your opinion, we will listen and then give our points of view.

So welcome from Pennsylvania.

[ALyon]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I guess I have romanticized the whole clan thing. As im sure you would all agree, its kind of fun to be part of something, but I think Americans are always interested in history, seeing how ours is a lot shorter than most and we come from so many different places. We also want others to like the things we do. Why else would there be a "like" button on facebook? In the end I'm hearing most of you say, Choose the tartan you like the most or the clan that does the most stuff in your area. I'll stew on this a bit. Once again thank you all.

[Mike_Oettle]

Hi there, A Lyon, and welcome to X Marks from the bottom end of Africa.
Clan Lyon has an interesting origin, and it seems most likely that you are part of it.
In the Bowes-Lyon coat of arms you have the first and fourth quarters argent, a lion rampant within a double tressure flory, both azure. [A silver field with a blue lion inside a royal tressure.]
The tressure was granted as a mark of royal favour; originally this was just a blue lion on silver, which is the coat of arms of the Count of Leuven (or Louvain) in what is now Belgium.
The Bruce family (their surname means “of Bruggen/Bruges”) shares this origin, although the Bruces of Annnandale dropped the lion in favour of the arms of Annandale (hence the arms of King Robert I before he assumed the throne).
I think you will fit well with Clan Lyon, and the tartan is a handsome one.
Regards,
Mike