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Michael PS
August 4th, 2012 | 5:57 am

When hyphen boy meets hyphen girl

In Scotland, hyphenated surnames are used, when someone inherits land (or arms) from both parents, especially, which keeps things within reasonable limits. When a younger son marries an heiress, he and their children take her name and arms, especially where the family name and the name of the lands is the same. Thus, “Moncrieffe of that ilk” means the branch of the Moncreiffe who still own the lands of Moncreiffe. ["ilk" = "the same" or "likewise]

My own name is “Paterson-Seymour of Boyd” and I am always known locally simply as Boyd. Were I a tenant farmer, it would be “Paterson-Seymour at Boyd” and people would call me Boyd just the same.