House of Gordon Australia

SEPTS OF CLAN GORDON:

Definition of a Sept: The word comes from the Latin 'Septum' meaning enclosed, a similar Celtic Gaelic work meant a kinship group but was used in Scotland to describe a family that follows the main Clan. Normally they married into the main Clan Family or took out a 'Bond of Manrent', vowing allegience to the Clan Chief in return for protection or assistance. Often Clan Chiefs gave out bags of Oats or wheat to get families to join them or to change their name and follow the clan. As time has gone on some Clans have become armadigious ( Leaderless) and have linked into other Clans.

Spelling Variations: There are many spelling variations of names probably due to the fact that only the monks and Gentry could read and write and it often depended on who recorded the name and how they thought it should be spelt. In some cases brothers surnames where spelt differently. Also when names were converted to English from Gaelic often changes occurred as the consonents were not the same or again were spelt how they sounded. Originally people were known for example: Tom, son of Fred and when surnames came into common practice about 1000 AD the word son was added to many names. The word son itself has many variations including : s. es, sone, solm, som, somb, sombe, soom, soombe, soun, some,sown and sume.