Scots-Irish surnames (Americans often say Scotch-Irish surnames) are the family names Lowland and Border Scots took to Ulster in the 1600s, which their descendants then carried to America in the 1700s: Hamilton, Montgomery, Stewart, Campbell, Cunningham, Crawford, Armstrong and Johnston are the classic examples. By 1622 a government survey counted 3,700 Scottish adult men on Ulster’s Plantation lands, with another 4,000 in unplanted Antrim and Down, according to the history of the Plantation of Ulster. Their surnames are still some of the commonest in the United States today.
This guide is part of our Scottish Names collection. Browse the full Scottish names directory for first names, surnames and Gaelic lists. For the Border side of this story, our Border reiver surnames guide covers the riding families, and the Highland and Lowland surnames explainer shows why most Ulster settlers were Lowlanders.
This is written for anyone with an American, Canadian or Ulster family tree who has been told “we’re Scotch-Irish” and wants to know what that means for the surname. Below you get 120 surnames with their Scottish home, their meaning, the Ulster county where a source names one, and how common they are in the US and Scotland today, plus a checker you can type your own name into.
A wee bit of context first. The name Scotch-Irish is an Americanism. In Scotland and Ireland the same people are called Ulster Scots, and plenty of them were never Scottish at all: northern English, Welsh, Manx and Huguenot families went to Ulster too. What tied them together was Presbyterian or other dissenting religion, and the short sea crossing between Galloway, Ayrshire and the Ulster coast. So when we say a surname is Scots-Irish, we mean it went from Scotland (or the Border) to Ulster to America, not that it is half Scottish and half Irish.
Two Scots Abroad · Scottish names
Scots-Irish surname origin checker
120 surnames Scots took to Ulster, and Ulster took to America. Search your surname, then filter by where in Scotland it started, what kind of name it is, and how common it is in the United States today.
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How common are Scots-Irish surnames today?
Very common, and far commoner in America than in Scotland. The 2010 US census surname file counts 386,157 Campbells and 324,957 Stewarts. Scotland only registers about a thousand of each in a year, because National Records of Scotland counts names on new birth, marriage and death records, not the whole population. Use the two columns as a ranking, not a head-to-head.
| Surname | People in the US (2010) | US rank | Scotland rank (2025) | Scottish registrations (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell | 386,157 | 47 | 5 | 1,027 |
| Stewart | 324,957 | 61 | 6 | 991 |
| Hamilton | 201,746 | 119 | 29 | 470 |
| Graham | 201,159 | 120 | 22 | 508 |
| Wallace | 197,276 | 123 | 47 | 344 |
| Kennedy | 176,865 | 146 | 48 | 343 |
| Crawford | 164,457 | 156 | 78 (joint) | 240 |
| Cunningham | 135,718 | 211 | 75 | 248 |
| Armstrong | 135,044 | 213 | 125 (joint) | 171 |
| Johnston | 131,373 | 225 | 37 | 428 |
| Montgomery | 115,953 | 263 | 228 (joint) | 110 |
| Knox | 44,742 | 769 | 347 (joint) | 77 |
A few patterns jump out. Campbell, a Highland clan name, outranks every Lowland name in the table in both countries. Montgomery is a Norman name that sits at 263 in the US but only joint 228 in Scotland, which tells you how much of the family went west. And spelling matters: Colquhoun barely registers in America (674 people), while its American spelling, Calhoun, has 43,180. The checker above flags these where the US spelling drifted.
On ancestry rather than surnames, the 2017 American Community Survey recorded 5.39 million people reporting Scottish ancestry and another 3 million identifying specifically as Scotch-Irish, according to the Scotch-Irish Americans history. Many more are thought to tick “American” instead.
How Scots-Irish surnames work
Most of these names are ordinary Lowland Scots surnames. What makes them Scots-Irish is the route they took, not anything in the spelling. The types are the same ones you find across Scotland:
| Type | How it works | Scots-Irish examples |
|---|---|---|
| Place name | Named after lands, a town or a farm in Scotland or northern England | Hamilton, Cunningham, Crawford, Maxwell, Johnston, Dunlop, Cathcart |
| Patronymic | Son of a named man, with the Scots or English -son ending | Anderson, Wilson, Patterson, Davidson, Dickson, Henderson |
| Gaelic Mac name | Gaelic mac, son of, often spelled Mc in Ulster | McCullough, McKee, McDowell, McAuley, McClelland, MacDonnell |
| Nickname | A description of the first bearer | Armstrong (strong arm), Campbell (crooked mouth), Boyd (fair), Reid (red), Todd (fox) |
| Occupation | The job the first bearer did | Stewart (steward), Miller, Hunter, Harper, Walker, Taylor |
| Norman | Brought to Scotland by Anglo-Norman families from the 1100s | Montgomery, Bruce, Colville, Agnew, Russell |
Three spelling habits are worth knowing before you go hunting through old records. First, Mc and Mac are the same thing; Ulster and American clerks simply preferred Mc. Second, spellings drifted in America: Colquhoun became Calhoun, Dunlop often became Dunlap, Irvine became Irving. Third, the 17th-century spellings look odd to modern eyes. The surviving 1630 muster roll for County Donegal lists men called Hammilton, Lyndsay, Makee, Lyone and Wallas, and every one of them is a name on this page.
Watch the overlap with Irish names too. Some surnames are Gaelic on both sides of the water (Gilmore, Gillespie, Magee), and some English-looking ones were used to anglicise Irish names: Burns can stand for Ó Broin, Moore for O’More, Maxwell sometimes replaced Miskell. The Celtic last names guide explains how Mac, O’ and the Welsh ap compare.
The Plantation of Ulster, explained
Private settlement came first. From 1606 Sir Hugh Montgomery and Sir James Hamilton brought Lowland Scots into north Down, and in 1607 Sir Randal MacDonnell settled 300 Presbyterian Scots families on his Antrim land. The official Plantation began in 1609 on land confiscated after the Flight of the Earls, covering six counties: Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone.
The big grantees were called undertakers, because they undertook to bring tenants. Each got around 3,000 acres on condition they settled at least 48 English-speaking Protestant adult men, including 20 families. The Ulster Historical Foundation counts 59 Scottish undertakers, most of them minor lairds, and the Ulster-Scots Agency says ordinary settlers came mainly from Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Lanarkshire, with Border families such as the Armstrongs, Beattys, Elliotts, Grahams and Johnstons as well.
| County | Principal Scottish landlord families | What happened there |
|---|---|---|
| Antrim | MacDonnell, Stewart, Adair, Shaw, Agnew, Colville, Edmonstone | Private settlement; Randal MacDonnell’s 333,000-acre estate |
| Down | Hamilton, Montgomery | Private settlement of the Ards and north Down from 1606 |
| Donegal | Stewart, Knox, Cunningham, Leslie, Hamilton, Murray | Official Plantation; bishops Knox and Leslie at Raphoe |
| Londonderry | McClelland | Official Plantation, largely run by the London companies |
| Tyrone | Hamilton, Stewart, Drummond, Richardson, Erskine | Official Plantation; the Earl of Abercorn founded Strabane |
| Armagh | Acheson, Hamilton | Official Plantation; the Achesons founded Markethill |
| Fermanagh | Hume, Dunbar, Balfour, Creighton | Official Plantation; Monea Castle, Crom |
| Cavan | Craig, Acheson, Hamilton, Bailie | Official Plantation |
| Monaghan | None shown | Not part of the official Plantation |
It grew fast. By the 1630s there were about 20,000 adult male British settlers in Ulster, which puts the settler population as high as 80,000, and a famine in Scotland in the 1690s sent tens of thousands more across. If you only take one thing from this section, take this: the Ulster Historical Foundation map shows Hamilton in five Ulster counties, so a Hamilton family tree can start almost anywhere in the province.
The Scots-Irish surnames worth knowing
Hamilton
Meaning: from Hambledon; the chiefs descend from Walter fitz Gilbert. Scottish home: Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire. Ulster: Down, Tyrone, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal. Today: 201,746 people in the US in 2010 (rank 119); rank 29 in Scotland in 2025.
The Plantation name above all others. Sir James Hamilton led the north Down settlement from 1606 and built Killyleagh Castle, described in 1614 as a very strong castle with nothing like it in the north. His relatives, the Earl of Abercorn and Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw, took Strabane barony in Tyrone in 1610, and Sir George was, unusually, a Catholic. Hugh Hamilton of Lisdivin paid his rent in either six pounds or a cask of French wine, a pound of pepper, four pounds of sugar and a box of marmalade, which is a cracking way to settle a bill.
Montgomery
Meaning: from Montgommery in Normandy. Scottish home: Ayrshire. Ulster: Down, Donegal. Today: 115,953 people in the US in 2010 (rank 263); rank 228 joint in Scotland in 2025.
Sir Hugh Montgomery was Hamilton’s partner and rival in the Ards. His brother George became bishop of Clogher, Derry and Raphoe all at once. The name itself is Norman, from Montgommery in Calvados, and another branch of Scottish Montgomeries settled in north Donegal in 1628. Our Norman surnames in Scotland guide has the rest of the families who came north with David I.
Stewart
Meaning: steward. Scottish home: the High Stewards of Scotland. Ulster: Tyrone, Donegal, Antrim. Today: 324,957 people in the US in 2010 (rank 61); rank 6 in Scotland in 2025.
Stewarts appear on the Ulster Historical Foundation map in Tyrone, Donegal and Antrim, and Ludovic Stewart, Duke of Lennox, was one of the few aristocrats among the Scottish grantees. The same map traces Stewart undertakers back to Ochiltree, Lennox and Aubigny, and Earl Castle Stewart, a title in the Peerage of Ireland, takes its name from County Tyrone. The surname means steward, after the High Stewards of Scotland, and in America it ranks 61st.
Campbell
Meaning: Gaelic cam beul, crooked mouth. Scottish home: Highlands. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 386,157 people in the US in 2010 (rank 47); rank 5 in Scotland in 2025.
The odd one out: a Highland clan name on a mostly Lowland list. Campbell means crooked mouth (Gaelic cam beul) and it is the fifth most common surname in Scotland’s 2025 registers. It sits at 47 in the US, ahead of every other name in our table. If you want the Highland side of the story, the Scottish clan surnames explainer is the place to start.
Cunningham
Meaning: from the district of Cunninghame. Scottish home: Cunninghame, north Ayrshire. Ulster: Donegal. Today: 135,718 people in the US in 2010 (rank 211); rank 75 in Scotland in 2025.
From Cunninghame in north Ayrshire. The Cunninghams were among the Scottish undertakers, with Sir John Cunningham named in the Raphoe barony of the 1630 Donegal muster roll (written Conningham). Wikipedia notes the name is in the top 75 in Ulster.
Crawford
Meaning: crow ford. Scottish home: Crawfordjohn, Lanarkshire. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 164,457 people in the US in 2010 (rank 156); rank 78 joint in Scotland in 2025.
Crow ford, from Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire, where the family took the name by about 1160. The Ulster-Scots Agency puts Crawford with Cunningham, Hamilton and Montgomery as the typical surnames of the Ayrshire, Galloway and Lanarkshire settlers.
Armstrong
Meaning: strong in the arm. Scottish home: Liddesdale and the West March. Ulster: Fermanagh. Today: 135,044 people in the US in 2010 (rank 213); rank 125 joint in Scotland in 2025.
Strong in the arm, and a Border reiver name through and through. After the Union of the Crowns broke the Border families, many Armstrongs found new homes in Ulster, particularly in County Fermanagh, and the Clan Armstrong history counts the name among the 50 most common in Ulster today. In the US it is 213th.
Johnston
Meaning: St John’s town. Scottish home: Annandale. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 131,373 people in the US in 2010 (rank 225); rank 37 in Scotland in 2025.
St John’s town. The Johnstones of Annandale were one of the most powerful Border reiver families, and the Ulster-Scots Agency names them among the Border settlers. The Ulster-Scots Agency list writes it Johnston, without the final e.
Graham
Meaning: from Grantham, Lincolnshire, via Sir William de Graham. Scottish home: Borders. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 201,159 people in the US in 2010 (rank 120); rank 22 in Scotland in 2025.
A Border name with a twist: some Graham families went to Ulster from Cumberland and Northumberland, on the English side, which is why historians warn that Scotch-Irish is not always Scottish. The name itself came from Grantham in Lincolnshire with Sir William de Graham in the 1100s. The Border surnames guide linked at the top has the reiver families on both sides of the line.
Kerr
Meaning: Middle English kerr, marshy brushwood; or Brittonic caer, fort. Scottish home: Scottish Borders. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 44,711 people in the US in 2010 (rank 771); rank 33 in Scotland in 2025.
One of the great Border reiver clans. The meaning is argued over: Middle English kerr, marshy brushwood ground, or the Brittonic caer, a fort. Kerr ranks 33rd in Scotland in 2025, far higher than its 771st place in the US.
Knox
Meaning: Gaelic cnoc, hillock. Scottish home: Across Scotland. Ulster: Donegal. Today: 44,742 people in the US in 2010 (rank 769); rank 347 joint in Scotland in 2025.
From Gaelic cnoc, a hillock. Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles and then of Raphoe, converted part of the old monastic buildings at Rathmullan in Donegal into his own house, adding corbelled turrets and tall chimneys. The UHF map puts Knox in Donegal twice.
Colquhoun
Meaning: Gaelic cùil chumhann, narrow corner. Scottish home: east of Dumbarton. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 674 people in the US in 2010 (rank 33,772); rank 513 joint in Scotland in 2025.
Say ka-HOON. The lands of Colquhoun lay east of Dumbarton, and the name may mean narrow corner. The Ulster-Scots list has it twice, as Colquhoun and as the phonetic Cahoon, and America settled on Calhoun. It is the clearest example on this page of an American spelling that only makes sense once you hear the Scottish one.
Morrow
Meaning: probably sea settlement (as Murray). Scottish home: Scotland and Ireland. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 56,840 people in the US in 2010 (rank 594); rank 1003 joint in Scotland in 2025.
Probably the same root as Murray, the sea settlement. The Morrow surname history says it is still pronounced Morrah in the most Scottish parts of Ulster, and that most Irish Morrows in the 1901 and 1911 censuses were Presbyterian. It ranks 594th in the US but only joint 1,003rd in Scotland.
McCullough
Meaning: son of the Hound of Ulster, or son of the boar. Scottish home: Scotland and Ireland. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 45,852 people in the US in 2010 (rank 755); outside Scotland’s 2025 list.
Two Gaelic roots, and you cannot tell them apart from the spelling: Mac Cú Uladh, son of the Hound of Ulster, or Mac Cullaich, son of the boar. McCulloch is the usual Scottish spelling. In 2010, 45,852 Americans carried this exact spelling.
Young
Meaning: young (to tell father and son apart). Scottish home: Across Scotland. Ulster: Ulster-Scots Agency list. Today: 484,447 people in the US in 2010 (rank 32); rank 17 in Scotland in 2025.
Young, to tell father from son. Nine Youngs turn up in the surviving 1630 Donegal muster roll transcript, more than any other name except Browne, and it is 17th in Scotland and 32nd in the US.
From Ulster to America: where the names went
Between 1717 and 1775 over 200,000 people from Ulster settled in the thirteen colonies, most of them landing at Philadelphia or New Castle, Delaware. Land near the coast was taken or too dear, so they pushed into the backcountry: up the Susquehanna and Cumberland valleys, down the Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley, and on into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky. Small groups of related families moved together, worshipped together and married each other, which is why the same handful of surnames turns up in Appalachian counties again and again.
The language came with them. Appalachian children were once warned to be good or “Clavers” would get them, without anyone knowing that Clavers was John Graham of Claverhouse, “Bloody Clavers” to the Lowland Presbyterians whose religion he tried to suppress.
Scotch-Irish or Scots-Irish: which is right?
Both. Scotch was simply the normal English word for Scottish until the 1800s, and it survives in Scotch whisky, Scotch broth and Scotch-Irish. The oldest American uses are from Maryland: a 1689 affidavit and a 1695 report that the “Scotch-Irish are numerous” in Dorchester and Somerset counties. Scots-Irish turns up from the 1870s. In Scotland and Northern Ireland people say Ulster Scots, and the historian David Hackett Fischer notes the label was much resented by the people it was attached to. Use Scots-Irish if you are writing for a British or Irish audience, and Scotch-Irish if you are searching American records, because that is what the old books say.
How to tell if your surname is Scots-Irish
No surname proves it on its own, so treat this as a checklist rather than a verdict.
- Check the checker. Every name in it is on the Ulster-Scots Agency list of common Ulster-Scots surnames, which is a strong first clue.
- Look at the religion. Presbyterian, Covenanter or Seceder churches in the family’s past point to Ulster Scots. A Catholic parish register points the other way, even for a Scottish-looking name.
- Look at where they landed and settled. Philadelphia arrivals in the 1700s who moved to the Pennsylvania backcountry, the Shenandoah Valley, the Carolinas or Tennessee fit the Scots-Irish pattern almost exactly.
- Check the spelling drift. Calhoun, Dunlap and Irving are American spellings of Scottish names, so search Colquhoun, Dunlop and Irvine in Ulster and Scottish records.
- If you hit a wall in America, go to Ulster records before Scotland. The family probably spent three or four generations in Ulster, so the 1630 muster rolls and Presbyterian registers there are the bridge. Everyone who has tried to jump straight from Pennsylvania to an Ayrshire kirk (church) has had a dreich (grey and gloomy) afternoon of it.
Watch out for: Irish surnames that look Scottish, and Scottish ones that look Irish. Kennedy, Burns, Moore, Magee, Gilmore and McCartney all have Irish Gaelic roots as well as Scottish ones, so a Kennedy family can be from Ayrshire or from Tipperary. And a few surnames on the Ulster-Scots list are English (Chambers, Gamble, Taylor, Richardson), because the Plantation drew on northern England too. Only the family’s paper trail settles it.
If your search ends up in Belfast rather than the archives, our guide to the top attractions in Belfast covers the city’s museums and walking routes. For the Welsh equivalent of this story, with the ap names that became Price and Powell, see our Welsh surnames guide.
Quick list: all 120 Scots-Irish surnames
| Surname | Meaning | Scottish home | Ulster county | US people (2010) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acheson | from Atkin, a pet form of Adam | Anglo-Scots Lowlands | Armagh, Cavan | 2,075 |
| Adair | disputed; one tradition ties it to Athdare (Adare) in Limerick | Scotland | Antrim | 18,708 |
| Agnew | Anglo-Norman aignel, lamb; or Ulster Gaelic Ó Gnímh | Galloway (Lochnaw) | Antrim | 9,856 |
| Alexander | Greek, defender of men; in Scotland an anglicised MacAlasdair | Highlands | 204,621 | |
| Anderson | son of Andrew | Across Scotland | 784,404 | |
| Armstrong | strong in the arm | Liddesdale and the West March | Fermanagh | 135,044 |
| Balfour | a Scottish territorial clan name | Lowlands (Balfour of Burley) | Fermanagh | 2,268 |
| Beattie | from Bartholomew; an Irish reading is public victualler | Borders | 8,993 | |
| Bell | bell ringer or maker, or Old French bel, handsome | Across Scotland | 220,599 | |
| Blackwood | black wood | Lanarkshire and Ayrshire | 8,407 | |
| Blair | Gaelic blàr, a plain or field, often a battlefield | Many places called Blair | 78,026 | |
| Boyd | Gaelic buidhe, fair or yellow; or from Bute | Kilmarnock, Ayrshire | 153,469 | |
| Brown | brown, for hair, complexion or clothing | Across Scotland | 1,437,026 | |
| Bruce | from Brix or Briouze in Normandy | Normandy, then Annandale | 53,419 | |
| Buchanan | from the lands of Buchanan; perhaps house of the canon | Loch Lomond (Lennox) | 66,648 | |
| Burns | Scots burn, a stream; or Burnhouse | Across Scotland | 165,925 | |
| Caldwell | cold stream | Scotland and northern England | 93,944 | |
| Campbell | Gaelic cam beul, crooked mouth | Highlands | 386,157 | |
| Carlisle | from the city of Carlisle | Carlisle, on the English side of the Border | 20,365 | |
| Carmichael | Brittonic caer, fort, plus Michael | Lanarkshire | 19,628 | |
| Carson | uncertain; perhaps Ua Crosáin, or an unidentified place | Galloway | 56,872 | |
| Cathcart | the strait of the River Cart | Renfrewshire | 4,716 | |
| Chambers | servant of the private chamber | England, with Scots form Chalmers | 94,988 | |
| Colquhoun | Gaelic cùil chumhann, narrow corner | east of Dumbarton | 674 | |
| Colville | from Colville in Normandy | Ochiltree, Ayrshire | Antrim | 1,277 |
| Craig | Gaelic creag, rocky hill | Across Scotland | Cavan | 92,507 |
| Crawford | crow ford | Crawfordjohn, Lanarkshire | 164,457 | |
| Creighton | from Crichton; Gaelic crìoch, border, plus tun, settlement | Midlothian | Fermanagh | 7,282 |
| Cunningham | from the district of Cunninghame | Cunninghame, north Ayrshire | Donegal | 135,718 |
| Davidson | son of David | Across Scotland | 103,930 | |
| Dickson | son of Dick (Richard) | Across Scotland | 35,312 | |
| Douglas | Gaelic dubh glas, black stream | Douglas, Lanarkshire | 101,458 | |
| Drummond | Gaelic dromainn, ridge | Drymen, Stirlingshire | Tyrone | 17,922 |
| Dunbar | from Dunbar, seat of the earls of Dunbar | Dunbar, East Lothian | Fermanagh | 26,405 |
| Dunlop | Dun Lobb, fort of the hill or bend | Dunlop, Ayrshire | 4,234 | |
| Edmonstone | family of Duntreath; meaning not settled | Duntreath, Stirlingshire | Antrim | under 100 |
| Elliott | origin obscure | Teviotdale and Liddesdale | 135,765 | |
| Erskine | from Erskine on the Clyde, first recorded 1225 | Erskine, Renfrewshire | Tyrone | 5,258 |
| Ferguson | son of Fergus, man of vigour | Across Scotland | 146,426 | |
| Finlay | Gaelic Fionnlagh, fair hero | Gaelic Scotland | 2,980 | |
| Fleming | a Fleming, an incomer from Flanders | Across Scotland | 90,677 | |
| Galbraith | Gaelic gall plus Breathnach, British foreigner | Loch Lomond (Inchgalbraith) | 8,886 | |
| Gamble | English origin | England | 34,005 | |
| Gibson | son of Gib (Gilbert) | Across Scotland | 190,667 | |
| Gillespie | son of the bishop’s servant | Gaelic Scotland and Ireland | 42,693 | |
| Gilmore | servant of (the Virgin) Mary | Gaelic Scotland and Ulster | 48,719 | |
| Gordon | from Gordon in Berwickshire | Gordon, Berwickshire, then Aberdeenshire | 161,833 | |
| Graham | from Grantham, Lincolnshire, via Sir William de Graham | Borders | 201,159 | |
| Gray | grey, probably for hair colour | Across Scotland | 246,116 | |
| Hamilton | from Hambledon; the chiefs descend from Walter fitz Gilbert | Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire | Down, Tyrone, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal | 201,746 |
| Harper | a harper | Across Scotland | 124,461 | |
| Henderson | son of Hendry or Henry | Fife and Glencoe | 218,393 | |
| Henry | Germanic haim, home, plus ric, ruler | Scotland and Ireland | 170,964 | |
| Hepburn | high place beside the water, from Hebburn in Northumberland | Anglo-Scottish border | 3,479 | |
| Holmes | Middle English holm, holly; or Old Norse holmr, islet | Scotland and England | 156,780 | |
| Hume | from Hume Castle and its lands | Hume Castle, Berwickshire | Fermanagh | 6,573 |
| Hunter | huntsman | Across Scotland | 162,440 | |
| Irvine | from lands of Irvine in Dumfriesshire | Dumfriesshire (Bonshaw) | 9,397 | |
| Johnston | St John’s town | Annandale | 131,373 | |
| Kennedy | disputed: helmeted chief, or grim-headed | Carrick, Ayrshire (Dunure) | 176,865 | |
| Kerr | Middle English kerr, marshy brushwood; or Brittonic caer, fort | Scottish Borders | 44,711 | |
| Kirkpatrick | church of St Patrick | Closeburn, Dumfriesshire | 26,251 | |
| Knox | Gaelic cnoc, hillock | Across Scotland | Donegal | 44,742 |
| Kyle | probably Gaelic caol, narrow | Kyle, Ayrshire | 18,721 | |
| Leslie | holly garden (from a Gaelic place name) | Aberdeenshire and Fife | Donegal | 25,078 |
| Lindsay | from Lindsey in England, island of Lincoln | Angus (Edzell) | 33,255 | |
| Livingstone | Levin’s town | Lothian | 2,539 | |
| Logan | Gaelic lagan, little hollow | Ayrshire, the Highlands and the North East | 67,909 | |
| Love | possibly from wolf | Lowlands | 82,873 | |
| MacDonnell | son of Donald | Islay and Kintyre (Clan Donald South) | Antrim | 714 |
| Magee | son of Aodh (fire) | Scotland and Ireland | 27,720 | |
| Martin | from Latin Martinus, after Mars | Scotland and Ireland | 702,625 | |
| Maxwell | Mack’s spring or stream, first recorded 1144 | near Kelso, Roxburghshire | 67,961 | |
| McAuley | son of Amhalghaidh, or son of Olaf | Gaelic Scotland and Ireland | 4,186 | |
| McCartney | Irish Mac Cartaine | Scotland and Ulster | 13,615 | |
| McCausland | son of Absalom | Lennox and Ulster | 1,697 | |
| McClelland | anglicised Scottish Gaelic name | Kirkcudbright, Galloway | Londonderry | 14,092 |
| McCullough | son of the Hound of Ulster, or son of the boar | Scotland and Ireland | 45,852 | |
| McDowell | son of the dark foreigner (a Dane) | Scotland | 49,217 | |
| McFarland | variant of MacFarlane, son of Parlan | Arrochar, Loch Lomond | 41,300 | |
| McKay | son of Aodh | Strathnaver, Sutherland | 38,681 | |
| McKee | son of Aodh, fire | Scotland and Ireland | 44,137 | |
| McMillan | son of the tonsured one (Maolan) | Gaelic Scotland | 40,237 | |
| McNeill | son of Niall | Barra, Gigha and Colonsay | 19,152 | |
| Miller | a miller | Across Scotland | 1,161,437 | |
| Mitchell | from Michel (Michael); or Middle English michel, big | Across Scotland | 384,486 | |
| Moffat | possibly Gaelic magh fada, long plain | Moffat, Dumfriesshire | 3,143 | |
| Montgomery | from Montgommery in Normandy | Ayrshire | Down, Donegal | 115,953 |
| Moore | moor; Scots forms Muir and Mure | Scotland, Ireland and England | 724,374 | |
| Morrison | son of Maurice; or Irish Ó Muirgheasáin | Scotland and Ireland | 121,130 | |
| Morrow | probably sea settlement (as Murray) | Scotland and Ireland | 56,840 | |
| Murray | from Moray, Gaelic for sea settlement | Moray | Donegal | 184,910 |
| Nelson | son of Nell (Neil) | Scotland and England | 424,958 | |
| Nesbitt | from the barony of Nisbet | Edrom, Berwickshire | 13,248 | |
| Orr | Gaelic odhar, dun or sallow | Renfrewshire | 44,388 | |
| Patterson | son of Patrick | Scotland, Ireland and northern England | 205,423 | |
| Pollock | from Pollok | Upper Pollock, Renfrewshire | 23,310 | |
| Pringle | from Hoppringle; Old English hop, a haven | Stow, by Gala Water | 13,115 | |
| Rankin | little Rand (Randolph) | Ayr | 28,821 | |
| Reid | red | Across Scotland | 111,360 | |
| Richardson | son of Richard | North East England | Tyrone | 259,798 |
| Robb | from Rob, short for Robert | Across Scotland | 13,402 | |
| Russell | Anglo-Norman; origin disputed | England and the Lowlands | 221,558 | |
| Scott | a Scot | Borders (Buccleuch) | 439,530 | |
| Semple | origin obscure | Renfrewshire | 2,630 | |
| Shaw | Old English sceaga, thicket | Strathspey and Lowland Scotland | Antrim | 160,400 |
| Simpson | son of Simme (Simon) | Scotland and England | 163,181 | |
| Smith | a metal worker | Across Scotland | 2,442,977 | |
| Stewart | steward | the High Stewards of Scotland | Tyrone, Donegal, Antrim | 324,957 |
| Taylor | a tailor (Old French tailleur, cutter) | England | 751,209 | |
| Thompson | son of Thom; also English for MacTavish | Across Scotland | 664,644 | |
| Todd | fox (Old English todde) | Scotland and northern England | 71,759 | |
| Trimble | disputed; possibly from Turnbull | England or Scotland | Fermanagh, Tyrone, Down | 16,306 |
| Vance | Old English fenn, from the marsh | England | 47,324 | |
| Walker | a fuller, who walked on wet cloth to thicken it | Scotland and England | 523,129 | |
| Wallace | the Welshman (a Strathclyde Briton) | the Clyde area (Strathclyde) | 197,276 | |
| Watson | son of Wat (Walter) | Across Scotland | 252,579 | |
| Wilson | son of Will | Across Scotland | 801,882 | |
| Witherspoon | wether (sheep) plus spang, a strip of land | Lanarkshire | 13,171 | |
| Young | young (to tell father and son apart) | Across Scotland | 484,447 |
FAQ about Scots-Irish surnames
What are the most common Scots-Irish surnames?
The surnames most often linked with the Scots-Irish are Hamilton, Montgomery, Stewart, Campbell, Johnston, Armstrong, Cunningham, Crawford, Graham, Kennedy, Wallace and Boyd, plus Mc names such as McCullough, McKee and McDowell. All appear on the Ulster-Scots Agency’s list of common Ulster-Scots surnames, and most rank in the top 300 in the US.
Is Scotch-Irish the same as Scots-Irish?
Yes. Both mean the descendants of Ulster Scots who emigrated to America, mainly in the 1700s. Scotch-Irish is the older American form, recorded in Maryland in the 1690s; Scots-Irish appears from the 1870s. In Britain and Ireland the same people are called Ulster Scots. Scotch was simply the usual word for Scottish until the 1800s.
Are all Mc and Mac surnames Scots-Irish?
No. Mac means son of in both Scottish and Irish Gaelic, and Mc is just a shortened spelling. Some Mc names came to Ulster with Scottish settlers (McClelland, McDowell, McKee), but many more are native Irish. Check the family’s religion and earliest Ulster location: a Presbyterian McKee in Down is a very different story from a Catholic one in Cork.
How do I know if my last name is Scots-Irish?
Start with the surname: if it is on the Ulster-Scots Agency list, that is a good clue. Then confirm with records: Presbyterian church membership, an Ulster origin before America, and settlement in Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley, the Carolinas or Tennessee in the 1700s. A surname alone cannot prove it, because many names are shared with Irish and English families.
Where did the Scots-Irish settle in America?
Most landed at Philadelphia or New Castle, Delaware, between 1717 and 1775, then moved west and south: the Cumberland Valley and western Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Earlier groups went to New Hampshire and Maine from 1718. A separate migration took Ulster Scots to rural Ontario and Nova Scotia.
Final thoughts on Scots-Irish surnames
If your surname is Hamilton, Montgomery, Stewart, Cunningham or Crawford, the odds are good that the family went through Ayrshire, Lanarkshire or Galloway, then Down, Antrim or the Plantation counties, then Philadelphia. If it is Armstrong, Elliott, Graham or Johnston, swap the first stop for the Border. The checker will not prove it for you, but it will tell you which archives to try first, and that is half the battle.
For the Gaelic side of the story, with the Highland Mac names that crossed far less often, see our Gaelic last names guide. And if you are looking for a first name to go with one of these surnames, the Celtic names guide sorts names by nation so you know which side of the water each one comes from.
Sources
- Ulster-Scots Agency, Discover Ulster-Scots: Surnames in Ulster and the list of common Ulster-Scots surnames
- Ulster Historical Foundation, The Scots in Ulster: the first Scottish migrations to Ulster, 1606 to 1641 (surname map)
- Plantation of Ulster (undertakers, the 1622 survey, settler numbers)
- Scotch-Irish Americans (terminology, migration, 2017 American Community Survey)
- Ulster Scots people
- US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames from the 2010 Census
- National Records of Scotland, Most Common Surnames 2025, published May 2026
- Donegal County Library, Muster Rolls Co. Donegal 1630 (transcript)
- Clan Armstrong history (Ulster and County Fermanagh)
- Morrow (surname): pronunciation and 1901 and 1911 census religion
- Wikipedia surname and clan articles for each surname’s meaning, citing George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland, and Hanks and others, The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
