Cowie & Murcar

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:59 pm

Does anyone have any insight into the origins of these North East names. I know they are both places, but the place names must have some sort of meaning. What came first the place or the name?

ROY M · Post by **ROY M** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 4:03 pm

Hi Andrew
Can't help with the Murcar name but Cowie means 'Wood' from the word Coille (Scottish Gaelic).wood.
Hope this helps

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:23 pm

Is that a definitive answer because I have heard a couple of other (not very plausible) definitions. One definition was something about gathering heather on a hill?

ROY M · Post by **ROY M** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:05 am

Hi Andrew
That definition is from my book of Scottish Place Names by George Mackay. Your other name Murcar, if you put it in as a general search on t'internet, you only seem to get references to a Golf club near Aberdeen. Is there actually a place or is the name only associated with the golf club.

ROY M · Post by **ROY M** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:12 am

Hi Andrew,
Sorry forgot to put in the other reply definitions of Cowie in the Scottish dictionary are,
1-Cowie, n, a hornless cow; a small cow; the seal.
2-Cowie, adj, odd, queer.
3-Cowie, adv, very, exceedingly.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:06 pm

In a case such as this it's always worth a check in surname listings (and vice versa when you are starting with a surname and want to check on origin...)

Black's "The Surnames of Scotland", the definitive work on the eponymous subject, gives COWIE as "local, from one or other places of the name, but mainly from the ancient barony of Cowie in Kincardineshire".

Go to http://www.scotsorigins.com/ and search on "cowie" and there's a pile of other connections, - these are taken from a listing of all placenames in the 1881 census

Black's has no entry for Murcar, but http://www.scotsorigins.com/ has four very specific closely connected entries, quite possibly where the golf club is now

David

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:49 pm

Thanks to both of you for that information.

I was aware of the geographical references to Cowie and Murcar. A place name is obviously not just a collection of letters but must have some sort of meaning. Is the place name after the person or the person named after the place? Am I wrong in thinking that it is not as common for Scottish surnames to be geographical in origin than say English surnames?

Again shamefully I am not up in the spread of the Gaelic language, am I under the misguided belief that Gaelic was not spoken in the North East. Therefore the origins of Cowie would not be Gaelic. Would there be a Doric origin?

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:33 pm

Hi Andrew
As far as I'm aware at one point Gaelic was spoken all over the northern part of Scotland, even as far south as Edinburgh!

Wikipedia says:
Region: Parts of the Scottish Highlands, Western Isles, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; formerly all of mainland Scotland except the southeastern part (parts of Lothian and Borders) and possibly eastern Caithness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language

Best wishes
Lesley

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:22 pm

Thanks for that, this brings in another query I had. I have as you can imagine a large list of linked surnames. My background is 100% Scots or Ulster Scots my fathers side from Aberdeenshire my mothers from Lanarkshire yet I have absolutely no Macs (or Mcs). The wikipedia site you linked to confirms that Mac is gaelic, so I again question the influence the gaelic in North East Scotland or had by the 13th or 14th century when surnames began to be used gaelic had declined however remnants of Gaelic place names still existed?

alex19canteen · Post by **alex19canteen** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:38 pm

I think you're quite right Andrew, place names are not just a bunch of letters thrown together with no meaning, here's a gaelic one in Aberdeenshire you maybe familiar with. http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=57.33289 ... =0&src=msl