Clans of Edinburgh

Families seated in Edinburgh

• Clan NapierInventors of logarithms and Celtic earls of Lennox.
• SmithThe forge surname — the most common occupational name in Scotland and the world.
• BrownDescriptive — the brown one — third most common surname in Scotland.
• WilsonSon of Will — second most common surname in Scotland, behind Smith.
• ThomsonSon of Thomas — the Lowland Scots form, no 'p', distinguishing it from English Thompson.
• AndersonSon of Andrew — the saint that gave Scotland its flag, and the patronymic that crossed every shire.
• ReidThe red one — descriptive Scots surname, dense in the Lothians and the Borders.
• TaylorThe tailor — Norman-French occupational, Scots and English in parallel.
• ClarkThe clerk — the literate man — when literacy was a profession.
• WalkerThe cloth-fuller — the foot trade that thickened the medieval weave.
• WatsonSon of Wat — the Lowland patronymic that produced both the steam engine and Sherlock Holmes's friend.
• Clan PatersonSon of Patrick — the Lowland patronymic of Scotland.

Historic ties to Edinburgh

Families with historic but not core ground here.

• Mitchell
• Young