Family Names

[sleckie]

Was it common for people to have two surnames in Scotland, e.g. Mary Taylor Smith and if so are there any rules, i.e. mother and father not married so both surnames of parents used or were there other reasons?

[alanmack]

Look up the term "Scottish naming patterns" as it gets too complicated to explain here. It was not strictly adhered to as time went on, with other people being 'honoured'  - other relations, family friends and often, godparents to the child in question. A wide spread in my lot in England as well as Scotland.

[iluleah]

Hi and welcome to rootschat

Not just in Scotland bu the whole of the UK and it was just a naming pattern used by some families, not others.

Some of my lines did and still do use this naming patterns and when the child was born they gave the mothers maiden name as a middle name, in some records you will see single women having a child and using the fathers surname as a middle name in baptism, often the only clue of who the father was unless they or the parish chased the father for maintenance and so you can then find details in the petty sessions records of the parish.
But there is no hard and fast rule as to what a child is called and what names are used when/where, Scotlands record system is slightly different to the rest of the UK in so much as some records often give more information such as mothers full name  where elsewhere you will just get fathers full name or single mums name with no father mentioned.

Even today in my family 3 different surnames one of which are used by someone in the family when their child is named