House of Gordon Australia

Families and Septs of Clan Gordon.

Nowdays most people get a bit upset when you spell their name wrong but remember in ages past,
most people couldn’t read or write. Only the monks and gentry were educated and as time passed not
everyone had the opportunity of schooling so it was not until the 1800’s that most people knew the
origins or spelling of their name was correct. You must remember it depended who recorded it and how
they thought it sounded or should be spelt or how it changed when translated ( Gaelic only has 18 letters
in its alphabet named after trees) as well as over time people changed spellings by dropping or adding
endings/letters. Linguists have lots of interesting ideas on how, where and why names came about or
changed. Most were either location related or occupational and sometimes even a nickname.
eg ‘Longshanks’= Long legs.

Besides general spelling variations, it often involved the ending on a name for example most have come
from a meaning of ‘son of’, which can appear as any of the following : s, ss, es, ess, son(e), soun,
sown, solm, som(e), somb(e), sum(e), sun(e). The use of ‘Mac’ as a beginning also means ‘son of’ but is
not as common in our clan.
Sometimes they can end with an added letter(s) such as: ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘e’, ‘y’, ‘ey’ or ‘ie’ or ‘ent’, ‘ant’, ‘and’,
‘end’ or sometimes it may be just an interchange from an e-o-i or en, on or in.
They can also have the ending meaning ‘ from the town of that name’ and end with town, toun, tum(b),
tom(b)(e), ton, han, ham. eg Adamstown.
There are too many other spelling variants to list here. You can add any of the above as spellings plus
some interchanged letters like y or z. If you think that you have something similar chances are that it is
related. If you want it checked please email us and we will look for the spelling on our lists for you. Here
are the base names we know of………

Achan, Achen
Ackan, Achen or Achyn
Adam, Addam, Add(e)y, A(d)die, Addis or Ady
Adken,
Adgie
Aiche, Aide, Aitche, Aike, Ake,
Atam, Atche, At(t)ie, At(t)kin, Atty, Atz, Aukin, Aytkin
Badenoch
Barrie
Con(n)ors, Con(n)an, Cancannon, Concannon plus endings of ane,ent,en,end,ens
Coyle
Craig
Cramm
Cromb, Crumbie, Crumm
Culain, Cullen, Cullin, Cullane
Darg(e), Darque, Dark(e),
Door, Doorghan, Doorman, Dorman, Dorwarte, Dorwarf, Dorward or the o was written with a ‘u’
Durward
Duff
Eache, Ead(i)e, Ece, Ecent, Echen, Echan, Echin
Ed(d)es, Ed(d)is, Edge, Edey ,
Esslemont
Etchis, Etic, Etze,
Flewery
Gar, Gara, Garah, Garden, Gardner, also with ending ‘in’, ‘yn’, ‘nar’, and Gartner
Garriock, Garrioch, Garick
Gear(y), Geearie, Gerrie, Gerry
Gordan(d)or(e), (de)Gordun, Gordyn(d), Gorden(d) or(t), Gordin(d) or (t) and Gullen,
Gourdon, Gordoun Gerdon, Gourden Gordown, de Gordoun, Guertin, Garner, Girtin, Girton, Gurton, Guerin, Gurdon
Haddy, Haddo, Hadkass, Hadkin
Harrison
Huntl(e)y or ie
Ikin
Jeary, Jeff(e)ry
Jessiman
Jopp, Jub(b)(e), Jupp(e or s )
Keary
La(i)ng(e)(s) or (ste), Ling, Long
Larrie, Larry, Laury, Lourie, Lewery, Lowery
MacAdam, Maccaw, MacColin, MacCullen, MacGeary etc ( Mac is also son of)
MacGwyverdgene (Gaelic?) MacGonigal
Mal(l)et(t)
Manteach
Mar(r)(s), Mar(r)e, Meiles, Mil(l), Milles, Mil(l)n(e), Myln, Moar, Mohr, Moir, Muir, Mo(o)r(e), Mora(d)ge,
Maver
Meldrum
Morass
Mor(r)is, Mor(r)ass,
Oakan, Oakes, Ochan or ‘k’ and ‘h’ were often interchangeable
Pittendri(e)gh
Steel(e)
Teal
Tod(d)(e)
Troup

Some Straghan and Waughs claim to be Septs and that is likely as in most clans there would be some
Families appearing in more than one clan where they originally got protection or they have changed
For some reason since, eg their clan is now leaderless and have merged into another clan. The Gordon DNA Project
also includes Swinton, Winton, Seaton, Seton and Douglas families who apparently have a common DNA.
The Gordons moved to Ireland in the 1700's and some Gordon Gaelic names are: MacMhuirneachain,
MacGurnaghan, Morbhoirneach and MacGourneson.
The names listed above are collected from various sources, Britannica, Wikipedia, and various internet
Sites, It is meant as a guide only. Sometimes you can see the development of the changes to another name.

We can always check with the Clan Chief as there are from time to time new additions to the list.