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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Fife => Topic started by: tenspar on Saturday 18 March 06 15:17 GMT (UK)
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Hi everyone
I have managed to trace my husband's family back to 1767 - David Gullon. The only information I have is that he was born in Scotland. However our local pub landlord is a 'Fifer' and he says that there are a lot of Spanish descent surnames along the East Coast as a result of sailors staying from the Spanish Armada in 1588. ( We believe the name GULLON to be of spanish origin )
Can anyone comment on this ? Is it true ? I would love to be able to go back further than 1767 - does anyone recognise the name GULLON ?
Many thanks as always
Mary :)
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Hi Mary
I always thought it a variation of Gullan which is a Scottish surname of territorial origin. Gullane in the parish of Dirleton, East Lothian.
:)
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Mmm
Yes it is a bit confusing. We have a directory of Gullons in the world and the vast majority are in Spain and France - but Spain has by far the highest.
There are very few Gullons in the United Kingdom. Don't know what to think, as Gullan is very similiar to Gullon isn't it ?
I have found a small town called Gullon in Sweden - could they have come from there I wonder ?
Did the Spanish settle down in Scotland ?
Sorry for all the questions !
Mary :)
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Hi Mary
With my half-Spanish hat on, the country origin of the name Gullon is I believe Spanish, what its meaning is I do not know. However, be aware that as always there were many variants. Have a look at for example http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/gulin-family-crest.htm which lists some of them.
Regards.
Monica
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Hi Monica
Thanks for the info. My husband will be pleased you agree with him that the name GULLON comes from Spain as he is convinced of this fact !!
We would like to think it comes from Scotland but is of Spanish descent.
Can you tell me how it would be pronounced in Spanish ? Would it be like the H sound like the j is ?
Mary
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Hi Mary
Yes it would and also normally with an accent over the 'O'.
Monica
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Thanks Monica
My teenage sons are very impressed now that they reckon they have Spanish blood !!!!!
Mary ::)
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Mary
Being half Spanish and half Scottish (born in Mexico City!), I highly recommend the mixture!
Regards.
Monica
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Hi Mary,
My husband's family name is Gullon. As we are from the Philippines, which was under Spanish colonial rule for over a hundred years, it is safe to say that it is a Spanish name. My husband also has Spanish ancestors. However, it is a surprise that they also have confirmed Chinese relatives, though their family name is spelled as Gollon.
Gullon is also pronounced by us as, Gulion, emphasis on the O.
Just wanted to add this for further information. :)
Karla
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Hi Karla
Thanks for that information. It seems more and more likely that Gullon does originate from Spain. I have noticed that a lot of spanish and mediterranean names begin with GUL ?
We have tracked my husbands ancestors back to Fife in Scotland and have discovered that some of the ships of the Spanish Armada were given haven there. I bet some of the sailors jumped ship and settled in Scotland ? Apparently there are lots of Spanish surnames in that part of Scotland. Fascinating !!!!! I'd love to find some Spanish relatives but I suppose thats just a pipe dream !
Regards to your family - we might even be related ?!?
Mary :)
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Hello Mary
Try this site: www.spatial-literacy.org and click on 'search for a surname' to see the distribution of Gullons in 1881 and 1998.
Don't want to be a wet blanket re the Armada theory, but if everyone in Scotland (especially the North-east, where I come from) who think an ancestor was a shipwrecked sailor from the Armada is right, there would have been nobody left in Spain! ;D I think I'm right in saying that the big shipwreck happened when they hit bad weather off the coast of Ireland.
What about trade? Any reason why Spanish people would to-and-fro, and eventually settle in Fife?
Trish
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Hi Trish
Thanks for the website it was interesting - 3 names per million are Gullon !
Don't know what to think about the Armada ? Guess it is a romantic thought :)
Don't suppose I'll ever know ???
Mary
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Well, Mary, if you can't be 'one in a million', three in a million ain't bad! ;D
Trish
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Hello Mary
Try this site: www.spatial-literacy.org and click on 'search for a surname' to see the distribution of Gullons in 1881 and 1998.
Don't want to be a wet blanket re the Armada theory, but if everyone in Scotland (especially the North-east, where I come from) who think an ancestor was a shipwrecked sailor from the Armada is right, there would have been nobody left in Spain! ;D I think I'm right in saying that the big shipwreck happened when they hit bad weather off the coast of Ireland.
What about trade? Any reason why Spanish people would to-and-fro, and eventually settle in Fife?
Trish
Well said, Trish. This Armada story is one of those urban myths that won't lie down and die. If you read 19th c. histories of fishing towns on the east coast of Scotland, they nearly all have a founding myth of this kind. The people of Buckhaven in Fife are supposed to be Danish, for one. The fact is that at various periods in the past, some of the crofter-fishermen in the coastal parishes decided to concentrate on the fishing and give up farming. In my native parish of Kilrenny in Fife, the laird John Beaton of Balfour built the harbour of Skinfasthaven in the 1540s and the fishing village of Silverdyke or Cellardyke grew up around it. The surnames of the fishing population are also found among the landward population, but obviously through time the fisherfolk became so distinctive in their lifestyle, dialect, etc. that they came to be seen as foreign interlopers.
There is no question that ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked off Scotland and the Diary of James Melville, the minister of Anstruther Easter, describes how some Spanish sailors were looked after by the people of that particular Fife town before being sent on their way, but there is absolutely no evidence of any of these foreign sailors being encouraged to stay in Scotland and settle there. Apart from anything else, the fact that they were Catholics in newly-Presbyterian Scotland would have counted against them. Where a supposedly Spanish name crops up, there is usually a boring explanation for it; e.g. it used to be said that the Gosman family of the Anstruther/Kilrenny area were descended from a Spanish Guzmán, but Gosman or 'Goose man' is an old Scottish and English surname found here long before the Spanish Armada was ever thought of.
Harry
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Gullon/Gullion/Gullian and other variations I think you will find they were out of the Orkney's as there were several families there during the 19th and 18th C (and likely earlier). I have seen some family trees with individuals who have moved south, through Fife and Perth and even England but can not attest to their accuracy. The ones in my line stayed close to home (Shapisay).
They could have originated in Spain but they do carry a known Gaelic name found in Ireland and Scotland.
Don
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There were people called Guillan in my home town in Fife. Until fairly recently spelling was quite haphazard, then people became fixated on a particular spelling and stuck to it, so on the face of it Gullan, Guillan, Gollan etc. look like different names, but may all come from the same source.
Funnily enough there is a correspondence in the "Scotsman" at the moment about the "correct" pronunciation of the town of Gullane in East Lothian. Some insist it should be "Gillan" (with a hard g), others think this is pretentious.
Harry
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Hi everyone
Well it seems that Gullon is definitely a Scottish name. My husband will be disappointed ha ha. He's just a romantic at heart ;D
I too had found evidence of Gullons in Orkney. The one thing that has always intrigued me is how few of us there are in the world. The vast majority are in Europe, France and Spain.
I also found a town called Gullon in Sweden I think ?
Anyway I think it's a lovely unusual name and I'm very happy to have received it through marriage.
Thanks for all your posts :)
Mary
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Sorry to hear that!
Its funny how the same word exists in two different countries... The word for free is the same in Norwegian and Spanish: "gratis"....
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Hi everyone
Well it seems that Gullon is definitely a Scottish name. My husband will be disappointed ha ha. He's just a romantic at heart ;D
I too had found evidence of Gullons in Orkney. The one thing that has always intrigued me is how few of us there are in the world. The vast majority are in Europe, France and Spain.
I also found a town called Gullon in Sweden I think ?
Anyway I think it's a lovely unusual name and I'm very happy to have received it through marriage.
Thanks for all your posts :)
Mary
If it's any consolation to your husband, recent DNA research indicates that a lot of Scots are descended from ancestors who came to Scotland from Iberia, via the Atlantic coastline, in prehistoric times. So he may have a distant blood link to some modern Spaniards!
Harry
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Hi, my name is Óscar Gullón. I am from Spain, and i live in a town called Ferreras. There are documents that confirms tgat the surname Gullon it has been where I live since the 17th century.
I believe the surname Gullon comes from a French town called Gullon, and maybe it comes from the ancient germanic name "Wilhelm".
Also I think that the surname arrived in Spain when "La Reconquista", a war where the christians fought against the arabics, who invaded the peninsula in the year 711.
maybe it was around the 12th or 13th century, when no one wanted to be in the borders of the arabics, and the kingdom of Castilla sold a lot of counties so a lot of English and French people came here. I think that a french person came from the town of Gullon, so he adoptated that surname.
Also, where I am, it was a bordier between christians and muslims from a long time.
I hope i've helped you, bye
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Hi Oscar
Welcome to RootsChat :)
That is really interesting background on the possible origin of the surname.
Monica