I have sent the following message to the Ayrshire mailing list to see what the response is but I wonder what Sloan etc people think about the following. I am perplexed. >My father told me that the Sloan name was Lowland Scottish and that any >Sloans in Ireland were there because they had gone there encouraged by, I >think James 11, to boost the Protestant population. > >Now I find that my ggrandfather was born in Ireland. Looking into Irish >families it seems that there are a huge number of Sloans in Ireland. It also >has a Gaelic meaning coming from I believe O'Slaughahan meaning something >like brave warrior. If the name has a Gaelic derivation it surely can not >be Lowland Scottish or can it ? Can anyone help? Is Sloan a Scots or Irish >name? Are there other examples of 'Scots' names with Gaelic derivations? >Annie Sloan in Oxon, England >