I have found the discussion on names fascinating and, as usual, was impressed with Dave's knowledge. (What did you do before you grew roses in Texas?) In browsing the IGI, I notice that most people spell the given name LACHLAN, with one or two adding an 'e' at the end. In my family, it was spelled LACHLIN -- two MacLeans and one MacRae discovered, so far. Getting back to the IGI, I found another Lachlin MacRae on Skye -- Strath. Not sure if he's related but it got me wondering whether the spelling of the name would be related to the region in which the person was born or might it have come from a common ancestor who spelled it that way? There's probably no firm answer to this but an educated guess might help me in my searches. Marion PS: I've spilled coffee on a keyboard a couple of times and my computer dealer said I was lucky it was black coffee. Otherwise it would have been ruined.