Does anyone know the origin of the Keith name? Since Caithness is the name of their home base, could Keith be a derivitive of Caithness? How much influence did the Vikings have on the speech of the northern Scotsmen? Any Caithness history buffs out there who can discuss this? Like to hear from them. My gggrandfather might know the answer, but he died in 1817. His clan and the Keiths were bitter enemies for many years.

Marguerite Pearson wrote: > Does anyone know the origin of the Keith name? Since Caithness is the name > of their home base, could Keith be a derivitive of Caithness? According to Black's "Surnames of Scotland", the surname has a "territorial origin from the lands of Keith in East Lothian", which is some little way distant from Caithness. Whether or not that is correct, Black is certainly able to quote documentary examples of the name from before 1200, all in southern Scotland. As to whether all instances of "Keith" as either placename or personal name could be linked to that supposed origin in Esat Lothian, I would be extremenly dubious. "Keith" occurs as a placename or as part of a placename in numerous locations in various parts of Scotland (Keith, Inverkeithney, Keithney, Keithhall, Keithen, Keithick, Inchkeith, Inverkeithing, Dalkeith, Balkeith). Such a wide distribution suggests that the name element may well have come into existence independently in more than one place, and the same may well apply to the personal name. And while there is a similarity to the first syllable of "Caithness", I would say that that is not enough to say that the one is the origin of the other. > How much influence did the Vikings have on the speech of the northern Scotsmen? Depends how you define "northern". Placenames of Norse origin are largely found in the Northern and Wester Isles, and to a limited extent in Caithness. But in the rest of mainland Scotland (much of which I would count as "northern") there are none, which is pretty clear evidence that there was no significant Viking settlement there. Scots, as spoken in most of eastern mainland Scotland, up to and including Caithness, is well understood as being a variety of Anglian, which is one of the West Germanic languages which are the immediate ancestors of English. The Vikings, on the other hand, spoke dialects belonging to the North Germanic group. There are points of similarity, but also significant differences, and some of the words occasionally quoted as "proof" that Scots derives from Norse (such as "kirk") can actually be found in both North and West Germanic. Gavin Bell

On 3 February 2010 15:52, Marguerite Pearson <marscot2@charter.net> wrote: > Does anyone know the origin of the Keith name? > ********************* Hi Marguerite Donald Whyte is an expert on Scottish names. His 2-page entry on the KEITH surname says, in part: "...the surname derives from the lands of Keith, in Humbie parish, East Lothian. Hervey Keith, who possessed part of the lands, held the office of Marischal (Keeper of the Royal Mares) under Malcolm IV (1124-53)..." Whyte goes on to list many notable men [yes, I know, only the men!] in the KEITH family, leading to Earl Marischal in 1458 and then leaders in academia and science thereafter. -- Best wishes Ray ********************************************************** >From Ray Hennessy Forenames website: www.whatsinaname.net Preferred Email address: ray@whatsinaname.net Hints for Scotland's People at http://bit.ly/WIAN-SCP **********************************************************