Scottish Surnames geographical distribution

[jacqueline cox]

I have just smashed a 17 year old brick wall by discovering my paternal great grandmother known by variations of Janetta Jones/ Moxon born in central London in c 1857 was actually born on 16 Oct  and registered as Janet Crann Forrest Barr in 1857 in Glasgow. At some stage between 1871 and 1879 she went to London and re-invented herself. Apart from a well researched Laidlaw line from Selkirk/ Roxburghshire, Janet is only the second Scot to turn up in my London based family tree.
Her parents were James Gibb Barr and Agnes Wilson Forrest. I feel lucky that this couple come from a Barr (John) and a Gibb (Margaret) and Robert Forrest and Janet Cran, which are, to me, reasonably easily followed surnames. But Cran does not originate in Inveresk where he first appears. Forrest - where is that name commn? Where are Barrs and Gibbs clustered? Lanarkshire? "Living dna," FT dna and Ancestry dna show I have dna common in Orkney as well as Midlothian. and my paternal cousin has  dna common in Aberdeenshire.
Are any of my surnames common in Orkney or Aberdeen?
Baffled
Jacqueline

[Forfarian]

Acording to G F Black's The Surnames of Scotland (1946)

Barr is of local original from Barr in Ayrshire or Barr in Renfrewshire .... most frequently found .... in the district around Glasgow
Cran Crann or Crane is from an Old English personal name .... current in the shires of Aberdeen, Banff and Inverness
For(r)est is from residence in a forest, or curtailed form of Forester
Gib(b) is a diminutive of the personal name Gilbert

I'd say that all these are Lowland surnames. None of them features in the top 100 surnames in Orkney according to Personal Names in Scotland (1991) published by the Registrar General Scotland.

[jacqueline cox]

Thank you very much. There's nothing like local informed knowledge! So my Orkney 4% remains a mystery. Lowlands origins makes more sense of what I have uncovered so far.
Grateful Sassenach (if that's a correct spelling)
Jacqueline.

[Forfarian]

Oh, I'm sure that if you could get back far enough you would find an ancestor who moved south from Orkney.

Sassenach is fine in English. It an anglicisation of the Gaelic 'Sasunnach', which is a gaelicisation of 'Saxon', used to mean 'Englishman' by Gaels who may not have been aware of distinctions between Angles and Saxons

[jacqueline cox]

Thank you. This sassenach is a fusion of Angles and Saxons (East Anglia and Sussex ancestors) and apparently,now, Lowland Scots. Add bit of Pembrokeshire and that makes me a mainland Brit. A dash of c17 Huguenot refugee finally produces a Euopean. Fairly typical mongrel, I'd say.

[Skoosh]

Check out Rootschatter Daval57 for Forrest info'.

Skoosh.

[jacqueline cox]

Thanks Skoosh. Er....how?
Jacqueline.

[RJ_Paton]

Thanks Skoosh. Er....how?
Jacqueline.

If you go to Search and search for "Forrest" posts by Daval57 you should see all of his Forrest posts - at one point he was trying to records as many Forrest families that he could.

Or just go to his profile page and follow the links from there http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=40157

[Skoosh]

Good guy, kens his woods from the trees! 

Skoosh.