Hi Valorie, Interesting post. Thanks for the contribution. I think there is a long tradition of Cowan's being merchants. It starts with Cowane of Stirling in the late 1500's and numerous Cowans in Glasgow. It's impossible to prove but they are probably Colquhouns who changed the spelling of the name but not necessarily the pronunciation. The Colquhoun country is just to the north of Glasgow in Luss, Camstradden, Dumbarton and the western shore area in general of Loch Lomond. Gaelic was the spoken language there until the 1830's and 40's. "Cowan" looked more normal of a word to an Englishman. Also, I believe you have it correct on the use of the old style "s." It is a carry over of Elizabethan Handwriting. The handwriting convention was for the "s" to be made with a long descender when used internally in a word. This form of the "s" makes it seem like our modern "f" but it is not. It is not an alternative, it's simply the Elizabethan convention. It's like the old English letter called a "thone" that kind of looks like a backwards "p." The thone was pronounced like our "th." Most people mispronounce the thone. When printed with fonts it looked like a "y" with two little dots above it. The ignorant read this as "Yee Olde Public House." It's really "The Olde Public House." One could not study English at UNC Chapel Hill without having an understanding of the history of the language. John "Coo - whoon" MacLay Cowan of Cowansville