Interesting name idea

[gilmore]

Your suppositions miss the point, and put the horse before the cart. Surnames came relatively late to Scotland, later than many other parts of Europe. The clans were in existence long before surnames came about. Many, if not most, Highland surnames derive from clans. Clans do not derive from surnames.

"Clan" is Gaelic for children. The entire idea of a clan is that those in it descend, actually or mythologically or a bit of both, from a common ancestor.

To my mind there are already far too many bogus claims made about septs, clan membership, etc, to warrant coming up yet another way to muddy the waters by trying to sell people on the idea that if their name can be translated into Gaelic, they can then go out and "find themselves a clan" by promoting a fraudelent connection that simply does not exist. You do not find yourself a clan. A clan finds you.

You see, there are many of us who are interested primarily in genealogical research, which is ultimately a search for the truth about one's ancestors. There have long been those who, out of pride or wanting to make themselves appear more interesting, have made up or bought into all sorts of fanciful, romantic and colorful lies about their ancestors. The further back one goes in history, the more one has to rely on secondary sources. The more one relies on secondary sources, the more of these lies one encounters, until one finds oneself spending more time plowing through the ******** than doing original research, separating the truth from fiction.

Please don't do this. Please don't encourage people to come up with even more ways to think up lies about their families. Believe me, their descendants and relatives will not thank you for it at all.