Scottish American
Ameireaganaich Albannach

Notable Scottish Americans: Gilbert Stuart · James Monroe · Washington Irving · Sam Houston Jack Daniel · David Dunbar Buick · Woodrow Wilson · James Stewart Ginger Rogers · Johnny Cash · Seth MacFarlane · Reese Witherspoon
Total population
Scottish Americans 5 million[1][2][3][4] Up to 8.3% of the U.S. population Scots-Irish Americans 27 to 30 million[5][unreliable source?][6] [unreliable source?]Up to 10% of the U.S. population[citation needed] 5,827,046 (Self-reported only, 2008) 1.9% of the total U.S. population[7]
Regions with significant populations
Appalachia, New England Western United States
Languages
American English · Scots · Scottish Gaelic
Religion
Predominantly Protestant (Presbyterian, Baptist) Some Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
British Americans (Cornish Americans · Scots-Irish Americans · English Americans · Welsh Americans) · Irish Americans

^[8]

Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scots-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage.^[9] The majority of Scot-Irish originally came from the lowlands and border country of Scotland before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century.

Recent studies state that there are between 30-40 million Americans who claim Scottish and Scot-Irish heritage in the United States. These figures include both Americans who claim Scottish heritage only as well as those who claim Scottish and other nationalities.

Historical population[link]

Explorers and traders[link]

The first Scots in North America probably came with the Vikings. A Hebridean bard is said to have accompanied Bjarni Herjolfsson on his voyage around Greenland in 985 which sighted the mainland.^[10] On the evidence of the sagas, the first Scots to set foot in the New World were slaves, a man named Hake and a woman named Hekja, who scouted for Thorfinn Karlsefni's expedition in 1010, gathering wheat and the grapes for which Vinland was named.^[11] The controversial Zeno letters have been cited in support of a claim that Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney, visited Nova Scotia in 1398.^[12] In the early years of Spanish colonization of the Americas, a Scot named Tam Blake spent 20 years in Mexico and Colombia and joined Coronado's 1540 expedition to the American Southwest.^[13]

After the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 James VI promoted joint expeditions overseas.^[14] The earliest Scottish communities in America were formed by traders and planters rather than farmer settlers.^[15] The hub of Scottish commercial activity in the colonial period was Virginia. Regular contacts began with the transportation of indentured servants to the colony from Scotland, including prisoners taken in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.^[16] By the 1670s Glasgow was the main outlet for Virginian tobacco, in open defiance of English restrictions on colonial trade; in return the colony received Scottish manufactured goods, immigrants and ideas.^[16][17] In the 1670s and 1680s Presbyterian Dissenters fled persecution by the Royalist privy council in Edinburgh to settle in South Carolina and New Jersey, where they retained their distinctive Scottish culture.^[16]

Scottish-American trade was finally regularised by the Act of Union in 1707. Population growth and the commercialization of agriculture in Scotland led to mass emigration to America after the French and Indian War,^[18] a conflict which had also seen the first use of Scottish Highland regiments as Indian fighters.^[16] More than 50,000 Scots, principally from the west coast,^[16] settled in the Thirteen Colonies between 1763 and 1776, the majority of these in their own communities in the South,^[18] especially North Carolina, although Scottish individuals and families also began to appear as professionals and artisans in every American town.^[16] Scots arriving in Florida and the Gulf Coast traded extensively with Native Americans.^[19]

Patriots and Loyalists[link]

The civic tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment contributed to the intellectual ferment of the American Revolution.^[16] In 1740 the Glasgow philosopher Francis Hutcheson argued for a right of colonial resistance to tyranny.^[20] Scotland's leading thinkers of the revolutionary age, David Hume and Adam Smith, opposed the use of force against the rebellious colonies.^[21] According to the historian Arthur Herman: “Americans built their world around the principles of Adam Smith and Thomas Reid, of individual interest governed by common sense and a limited need for government.”^[22]

Nineteen of the fifty-six delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence came from Scotland or Ulster or, like the Scottish-tutored Thomas Jefferson, had ancestors there.^[23] Other Founding Fathers like James Madison had no ancestral connection but were imbued with ideas drawn from Scottish moral philosophy.^[24] Scottish Americans who made major contributions to the revolutionary war included Commodore John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy", and Generals Henry Knox and William Alexander.

The Scotch-Irish, who had already begun to settle beyond the Proclamation Line in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, were drawn into rebellion as war spread to the frontier.^[25] Tobacco plantations and independent farms in the backcountry of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas had been financed with Scottish credit, and indebtedness was an additional incentive for separation.^[15]

Most Scottish Americans had commercial ties with the old country or clan allegiances and stayed true to the Crown.^[26] The Scottish Highland communities of upstate New York and the Cape Fear valley of North Carolina were centers of Loyalist resistance.^[16] A small force of Loyalist Highlanders fell at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. Scotch-Irish Patriots defeated Scottish American Loyalists in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.^[27] Many Scottish American Loyalists emigrated to Canada after the war.^[16]

Immigrants and free traders[link]

Trade with Scotland continued to flourish after independence. The tobacco trade was overtaken in the nineteenth century by the cotton trade, with Glasgow factories exporting the finished textiles back to the United States on an industrial scale.^[28] Immigration from Scotland peaked in the nineteenth century, when more than a million Scots left for the United States,^[29] taking advantage of the regular Atlantic steam-age shipping industry which was itself largely a Scottish creation,^[30] contributing to a revolution in transatlantic communication.^[16] Scottish Emigration in the United States followed, to a lesser extent, during the twentieth century, when the Scottish economy declined.^[31] This peaked in the first decade of the twentieth century, causing a hard life for the country's population. So many qualified workers Irish - Scots emigrated overseas, a part of which, established in Canada, would go the United States.^[32]

Tartan Day[link]

The Annual Tartan Week celebrations come to life every April with the largest celebration taking place in New York City. Thousands descend onto the streets of the Big Apple to celebrate their heritage, culture and the impact of the Scottish Americans in America today.

Hundreds of pipers, drummers, Highland dancers, Scottie Dogs and celebrities march down the streets drowned in their family tartans and Saltire flags whilst interacting with the thousands of onlookers.

NYC is not the only large city to celebrate Tartan Day, there is also large events that take place in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, California, Chicago, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Québec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe.

Writers[link]

In the nineteenth century American authors and educators adopted Scotland as a model for cultural independence.^[16] In the world of letters, Scottish literary icons James Macpherson, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and Thomas Carlyle had a mass following in the United States, and Scottish Romanticism exerted a seminal influence on the development of American literature.^[16] The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne bear its powerful impression. Among the most notable Scottish American writers of the nineteenth century were Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

Soldiers and statesmen[link]

American statesmen of Scottish descent in the early Republic included Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and President James Monroe. Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk were Scotch-Irish presidents and products of the frontier in the period of Westward expansion. Among the most famous Scottish American soldier frontiersmen were Davy Crockett and Sam Houston, founding father of Texas.

Other Scotch-Irish presidents included James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Chester Alan Arthur, William McKinley and Richard M. Nixon. Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt (through his mother), Woodrow Wilson, and Lyndon B. Johnson, were of Scottish descent.^[33] By one estimate, 75% of U.S. presidents could claim some Scottish ancestry.^[34]

Scottish Americans fought on both sides of the Civil War, and a monument to their memory was erected in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1893. Winfield Scott, Grant, Joseph E. Johnston, Irvin McDowell, James McPherson and Jeb Stuart John B. Gordon were of Scottish descent, George B. McClellan and Stonewall Jackson Scotch-Irish.^[35]

Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall upheld the martial tradition in the twentieth century. Grace Murray Hopper, a rear admiral and computer scientist, was the oldest officer and highest-ranking woman in the U.S. armed forces on her retirement at the age of 80 in 1986.^[36] Isabella Cannon, the former Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, served as the first female mayor of a U.S. state capital.^[37]

American icon Uncle Sam[link]

Uncle Sam was based on Samuel Wilson.

Uncle Sam is the national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. The American icon Uncle Sam who embodies the American spirit more than any other figure was in fact based on a real man. A businessman from Troy, New York, Samuel Wilson whose parents sailed to America from Greenock, Scotland, has been officially recognized as the original Uncle Sam. He provided the army with beef and pork in barrels during the War of 1812. The barrels were prominently labeled "U.S." for the United States, but it was jokingly said that the letters stood for "Uncle Sam." Soon, Uncle Sam was used as shorthand for the federal government.

Automakers[link]

The Scottish-born Alexander Winton built one of the first American automobiles in 1896, and specialized in motor racing. He broke the world speed record in 1900.^[38] In 1903 he became the first man to drive across the United States.^[38] David Dunbar Buick, another Scottish immigrant, founded Buick in 1903.^[38] The Scottish-born William Blackie transformed the Caterpillar Tractor Company into a multinational corporation.^[38]

Aviation[link]

Scottish Americans have made a major contribution to the US aircraft industry. Alexander Graham Bell, in partnership with Samuel Pierpont Langley, built the first machine capable of flight, the Bell-Langley airplane, in 1903.^[39] Lockheed was started by two brothers, Allan and Malcolm Loughead, in 1926.^[39] Douglas was founded by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. in 1921; he launched the world's first commercial passenger plane, the DC-3, in 1935.^[39] McDonnell Aircraft was founded by James Smith McDonnell, in 1939, and became famous for its military jets.^[39] In 1967 McDonnell and Douglas merged and jointly developed jet aircraft, missiles and spacecraft.^[39]

Spaceflight[link]

Scottish Americans were pioneers in human spaceflight. The Mercury and Gemini capsules were built by McDonnell.^[39] The first American in space, Alan Shepard, the first American in orbit, John Glenn, and the first man to fly free in space, Bruce McCandless II, were Scottish Americans.^[39]

The first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were also of Scottish descent; Armstrong wore a kilt in a parade through his ancestral home of Langholm in the Scottish Borders in 1972.^[39] Other Scottish American moonwalkers were the fourth, Alan Bean, the fifth, Alan Shepard, the seventh, David Scott (also the first to drive on the moon), and the eighth, James Irwin.^[39]

Computing[link]

Scottish Americans have also been leaders in computing and information technology. The Scottish-born James Johnston and Thomas J. Watson, of Scotch-Irish descent, developed an early tabulating machine in 1916 and founded IBM in 1917.^[36]

Scottish Americans Howard Aiken and Grace Murray Hopper created the first automatic sequence computer in 1939.^[36] Hopper was also the co-inventor of the computer language Cobol.^[36]

Ross Perot, another Scottish American entrepreneur, made his fortune from Electronic Data Systems, an outsourcing company he established in 1962.^[36]

Software giant Microsoft was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, who owed his start in part to his mother, the Scottish American businesswoman Mary Maxwell Gates, who helped her son to get his first software contract with IBM.^[36] Glasgow-born Microsoft employee Richard Tait helped to develop the Encarta encyclopedia and co-created the popular board game Cranium.^[36]

Included is Scott McNeely, and Rockstar Games.^{[citation needed]}

Cuisine[link]

Scottish Americans have helped to define the modern American diet by creating many leading food brands.

Fried chicken was introduced into the Southern Colonies by Scottish settlers. Philip Danforth Armour founded Armour Meats in 1867, revolutionizing the American meatpacking industry and becoming famous for hot dogs. Campbell Soups was founded in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell and rapidly grew into a major manufacturer of canned soups. W. K. Kellogg transformed American eating habits from 1906 by popularizing breakfast cereal. McDonald's restaurant chain was founded in 1940 by Scots-Irish fast food pioneers Dick and Mac McDonald. Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell in 1962, introduced Mexican food to a mainstream audience.^[40][41] Marketing executive Arch West, born to Scottish immigrant parents, developed Doritos.^[42]

Scottish Americans and African Americans[link]

There has been a long tradition of influences between Scottish American and African American communities. The great influx of Scots Presbyterians into the Carolinas introduced the African slaves to Christianity and their way of worship and singing. Even today, psalm singing and gospel music are the backbone of African American churchgoers. It has been long thought by the wider African American community that American Gospel music originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas by slaves. However recent studies by Professor Willie Ruff, a Black American ethno-musicologist at Yale University, concludes that African American Gospel singing was in fact introduced and encouraged by Scottish Gaelic speaking settlers from North Uist.^[43] His study also concludes that the first foreign tongue spoken by slaves in America was not English but Scottish Gaelic taught to them by Gaelic speakers who left the Western Isles because of religious persecution.^[43] Traditional Scottish Gaelic psalm singing, or "precenting the line" as it is correctly known, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings a response, was the earliest form of congregational singing adopted by Africans in America. Professor Ruff focuses on Scottish settler influences that pre-date all other congregational singing by African Americans in America and found, in a North Carolina newspaper dated about 1740, an advertisement offering a generous reward for the capture and return of a runaway African slave who is described as being easy to identify because he only spoke Gaelic.^[44] Such cultural influences have remained until modern times, even a church in Alabama where the African American congregation worshipped in Gaelic as late as 1918, giving a clue to the extent to which the Gaels spread their culture - from North Carolina to Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.^[45]

Number of Scottish Americans[link]

Tartan Day parade in New York City.

The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 to 25 million^[1][2][3][4] (up to 8.3% of the total US population), and Scots-Irish, 27 to 30 million^{[5][unreliable source?][6][unreliable source?]} (up to 10% of the total US population),^{[citation needed]} the subgroups overlapping and not always distinguishable because of their shared ancestral surnames.

In the 2000 Census, 4.8 million Americans self-reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total US population. Another 4.3 million self-reported Scots-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. According to American Community Survey in 2008 data, Americans self-reporting Scottish ancestry made up an estimated 1.9% of the total U.S. population. Self-reported Scottish and Scotch-Irish ancestry represented 3.1% of the U.S. population in 2008.^[7]

Self-reported numbers are regarded by demographers as massive under-counts, because Scottish ancestry is known to be disproportionately under-reported among the majority of mixed ancestry,^[46] and because areas where people reported "American" ancestry were the places where, historically, Scottish and Scots-Irish Protestants settled in America (that is: along the North American coast and the Southeastern United States).^{[citation needed]} Scottish Americans descended from nineteenth-century Scottish immigrants tend to be concentrated in the West, while others in New England are the descendants of immigrants from the Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially in the 1920s.^{[citation needed]}

Americans of Scottish descent outnumber the population of Scotland, where 4,459,071 or 88.09% of people identified as ethnic Scottish in the 2001 Census.^[46][47]

2006 American Community Survey[link]

• Scottish 6,006,955 Americans
• Scots-Irish 5,393,554 Americans^[50]

Scottish Americans by state[link]

The states with the most Scottish & Scots-Irish populations:

Scottish

• California- 621,890 (1.6% of State population)
• Florida- 394,293 (1.8%)
• Texas- 289,827 (1.4%)
• Michigan- 224,803 (2.3%)
• New York- 212,275 (1.1%)

Scots-Irish

• California- 410,310 (1.2% of State population)
• Texas- 337,630 (1.6%)
• North Carolina- 255,825 (3.2%)
• Florida- 246,580 (1.5%)
• Pennsylvania- 218,173 (0.7%)

'Scottish ancestry' is Dark red and brown colors and indicate higher density: (Maps of American ancestries)

The states with the top percentages of Scottish:

Scottish

• Maine (4.8% of state population)
• Vermont (4.6%)
• Utah (4.4%)
• New Hampshire (4.4%)
• Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho (3.2% each)

Scots-Irish

• North Carolina (3.2%)
• South Carolina (2.9%)
• Tennessee (2.6%)
• Montana (2.6%)
• Maine (2.6%)

Presidents of Scottish or Scots-Irish descent[link]

James Monroe

James Knox Polk

William McKinley

At least twenty three presidents of the United States have some Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry, although the extent of this varies. For example, Ronald Reagan's great grandfather was a Scot and Woodrow Wilson’s maternal grandparents were both Scottish. To a lesser degree Bill Clinton, James K. Polk and Richard Nixon have less direct Scottish, Scots-Irish ancestry.

James Monroe (Scottish & Welsh)

5th President 1817-25: His paternal 2nd great-grandfather, Major Andrew Monroe who was descended from Robert Munro, 14th Baron of Foulis, chief of an ancient Scottish highland clan, emigrated to America from Scotland in the mid-17th century.

Andrew Jackson (Scots-Irish)

7th President 1829-37: : He was born in the predominantly Ulster-Scots Waxhaws area of South Carolina two years after his parents left Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. A heritage centre in the village pays tribute to the legacy of 'Old Hickory', the People's President. Andrew Jackson then moved to Tennessee, where he served as Governor^[51]

James Knox Polk (Scots-Irish)

11th President, 1845-49: His ancestors were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from Coleraine in 1680 to become a powerful political family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee and became its governor before winning the presidency.^[52]

James Buchanan (Scots-Irish)

15th President, 1857-61: Born in a log cabin (which has been relocated to his old school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania), 'Old Buck' cherished his origins: "My Ulster blood is a priceless heritage". The Buchanans were originally from Deroran, near Omagh in County Tyrone where the ancestral home still stands.^[52]

Andrew Johnson (Scots-Irish & English)

17th President, 1865-69: His grandfather left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim around 1750 and settled in North Carolina. Andrew worked there as a tailor and ran a successful business in Greeneville, Tennessee, before being elected Vice-President. He became President following Abraham Lincoln's assassination.^[52]

Ulysses S. Grant (Scottish, Scots-Irish & English)

18th President, 1869-77: The home of his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, at Dergenagh, County Tyrone, is the location for an exhibition on the eventful life of the victorious Civil War commander who served two terms as President. Grant visited his ancestral homeland in 1878.^[7]

Chester A. Arthur (Scots-Irish & English)

21st President, 1881-85: His election was the start of a quarter-century in which the White House was occupied by men of Ulster-Scots origins. His family left Dreen, near Cullybackey, County Antrim, in 1815. There is now an interpretive centre, alongside the Arthur Ancestral Home, devoted to his life and times.^[52][53]

Grover Cleveland (Scots-Irish & English)

22nd and 24th President, 1885-89 and 1893-97: Born in New Jersey, he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.^[52]

Benjamin Harrison (Scots-Irish & English)

23rd President, 1889-93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her two great-grandfathers, James Irwin and William McDowell. Harrison was born in Ohio and served as a brigadier general in the Union Army before embarking on a career in Indiana politics which led to the White House.^[52][54]

William McKinley (Scots-Irish & English)

25th President, 1897-1901: Born in Ohio, the descendant of a farmer from Conagher, near Ballymoney, County Antrim, he was proud of his ancestry and addressed one of the national Scotch-Irish congresses held in the late 19th century. His second term as president was cut short by an assassin's bullet.^[52][55]

Theodore Roosevelt (Scottish, Scots-Irish, Dutch, English & French)

26th President, 1901-09: His maternal great-great-great grandmother, Jean Stobo, emigrated to America from Scotland with her parents in 1699.

William Howard Taft (Scots-Irish & English)

27th President 1909-13^[56][57]

Woodrow Wilson (Scottish & Scots-Irish)

28th President, 1913-21: His Scottish maternal grandparents, Rev. Dr Thomas Woodrow and Marion Williamson, emigrated to America in the 1830s. Throughout his career he reflected on the influence of his ancestral values on his constant quest for knowledge and fulfillment.^[52]

Warren G. Harding (Scots-Irish & English)

29th President 1921-23^[58]

Harry S. Truman (Scots-Irish, English & German)

33rd President 1945-53^[59][60]

Richard Nixon (Scots-Irish, Irish, English & German)

37th President, 1969-74: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with County Antrim and County Kildare.^[52]

Jimmy Carter (Scots-Irish & English)

39th President 1977-1981 (County Antrim)^[7]

Ronald Reagan (Irish, Scottish, Scots-Irish & English)

40th President 1981-89: His great grandfather, John Wilson, emigrated to North America from Paisley in 1832.^[61]

George H. W. Bush (Scottish, Irish, Scots-Irish & English)

41st President 1989-93: His great-great-great grandmother, Catherine Walker (nee McLelland), was Scottish.

Bill Clinton (Scots-Irish & English)

42nd President 1993-2001 (County Fermanagh)^[52][62]

George W. Bush (Scottish, Scots-Irish & English)

43rd President 2001-09: His great-great-great-great grandmother, Catherine Walker (nee McLelland), was Scottish.

Barack Obama (Kenyan, Irish & English, with others including Scottish)

44th President 2009-present^[63]

Vice Presidents of Scottish or Scots-Irish descent[link]

Other American presidents of Scottish or Scots-Irish descent[link]

Sam Houston (Scots-Irish)

President of Texas 1836-38 and 1841-44 ^[64]

Jefferson Davis (scotch-Irish)

president of Confederate States of America 1861-1865

Scottish Gaelic language in the United States[link]

In the 17th and 18th centuries, tens of thousands of Scots from Scotland, and Scots-Irish from the north of Ireland arrived in the American colonies. Today, an estimated 20 million Americans are of Scottish ancestry. The province of Nova Scotia, Canada was the main concentration of Scottish Gaelic speakers in North America (Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland). According to the 2000 census, 1,610 people speak Scottish Gaelic at home.^[65]

Culture[link]

Massed bands at the 2005 Pacific Northwest Highland Games

Some of the following aspects of Scottish culture can still be found in some parts of the USA.

• Bagpiping and pipe bands.
• Burns Supper^[66]
• Ceilidhs
• Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year
• Tartan, some places in the USA having their own tartan. Additionally Scottish dress is worn by some Americans to celebrate their ancestral heritage.

National Tartan Day[link]

National Tartan Day, held each year on April 6 in the United States and Canada, celebrates the historical links between Scotland and North America and the contributions Scottish Americans and Canadians have made to US and Canadian democracy, industry and society. The date of April 6 was chosen as "the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320—the inspirational document, according to U.S. Senate Resolution 155, 1999, upon which the American Declaration of Independence was modeled".^[67] "Scottish Heritage Month" is also being promoted by community groups around the United States and Canada.^[68]

Highland Games[link]

Scottish culture, food, and athletics are celebrated at Highland Games and Scottish festivals throughout North America. One of the largest of these occurs yearly at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. However, in recent years, the games at Pleasanton, California have surpassed them in size. In addition to traditional Scottish sports such as tossing the caber and the hammer throw, there are whisky tastings, traditional foods such as haggis and traditional Scottish dance.

Scottish placenames[link]

File:DunedinWelcomeSign.jpg

Dunedin, Florida (left) was founded in 1882 by two Scottish merchants, J.O. Douglas and James Somerville and is named after Dùn Èideann, Scottish Gaelic for "Edinburgh".^[69]

Some Scottish placenames in USA include:

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011)

• California
  • Inverness
  • Irvine named for the historic Irvine Ranch and Irvine Subdivision of Orange County, California.
• South Carolina
  • Charleston, Charleston's name is derived from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• Colorado
  • Montrose
• Connecticut
  • Scotland
• Florida
  • Dundee
  • Dunedin, from Dun Eideann, Scottish Gaelic for Edinburgh
  • Inverness
• Massachusetts
  • Melrose
• New Jersey
  • Perth Amboy (half Scottish, half Lenape)
• New York
  • Albany
  • Dundee
• North Carolina
  • Highlands
  • Roxboro - A variant spelling of Roxburgh
• Oklahoma
  • Guthrie
• Texas
  • Argyle - A variant spelling of Argyll
  • Dallas
  • Edinburg - A variant spelling of Edinburgh
  • Houston - Houston suburbs include Montrose
  • Midlothian
• Utah
  • Argyle (now a ghost town)
  • Ben Lomond
  • Logan
• Virginia
  • Dumfries
  • Gretna
  • Glasgow
  • Hamilton
  • Kilmarnock
  • McDowell
  • Midlothian
  • Rutherglen
• Washington state
  • Aberdeen
• Wisconsin
  • Dunbar

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Scotland portal

• Americans
  • British American
  • English American
  • Irish American
  • Scots-Irish American
  • List of Scottish Americans
  • Welsh American

• Celtic music in the United States
• Maps of American ancestries
• Scottish place names in the USA

• Scots by country
  • Scots-Quebecer
  • Scottish Canadian

References[link]

External links[link]

• Scottish Americans
• Scotland's Mark on America, by George Fraser Black, Ph.D. at Project Gutenberg
• Scottish Emigration Database
• Scotlands People - Official government source for Scottish roots
• US Scots: includes extensive listing of Highland games events
• Website of An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach

v t e Scottish diaspora Americas Argentina · Brazil · Canada (Quebec) · Chile · Jamaica · United States (Scotch-Irish) Asia India Europe Ireland Oceania Australia · New Zealand

v t e British diaspora Europe Ireland (Anglo-Irish · Ulster Scots) · Spain · Turkey North America Canada (Anglo-Indian · English · Scottish (Quebec) · Welsh) · Jamaica (English · Irish · Scottish · Welsh) · United States (Cornish · English · Scottish · Scotch-Irish · Welsh) South America Argentina (English · Irish · Scottish · Welsh) · Brazil (English · Scottish) · Chile (English · Scottish · Welsh) · Paraguay · Peru Asia Burma · Hong Kong · India (English · Scottish) · Pakistan · Sri Lanka · United Arab Emirates Africa Egypt · Kenya · South Africa · Zimbabwe Oceania Australia (Cornish · English · Scottish · Welsh) · New Zealand (Pākehā · Scottish)

Look up scottish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Scottish may refer to something of, from, or related to Scotland, a country in northern Europe, part of the United Kingdom since 1707.

Scottish may also refer to:

Languages[link]

• Scottish English, the varieties of English spoken in Scotland
• Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language native to Scotland
• Scots language, a language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster

People[link]

• Scottish people
• List of famous Scottish people

Culture[link]

• Scottish American
• Scottish national identity

Other uses[link]

• Scottish cuisine
• Schottische, a dance
• Scottish (card game), a Shedding-type card game, also known as shirts and boots
• Scottish Crofting Foundation
• Scottish Reformation, 1560
• "Scottish" Symphony, Mendelssohn's third symphony
• Scottish Television, currently known as STV, the ITV licensee for Central and Northern Scotland
• Scottish Terrier dog breed

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Scots

1st row: William Wallace • Walter Scott • Alexander Graham Bell • Lulu • John Greig • James Watt • James McAvoy 2nd row: Flora MacDonald • Donald Dewar • Mary, Queen of Scots • Ewan McGregor • Robert Burns • Deborah Kerr • Robert I of Scotland 3rd row: Jackie Stewart • Charles Rennie Mackintosh • Billy Connolly • John Logie Baird • Saint Margaret of Scotland • Sean Connery • Alexander Fleming
Total population
Scottish 6–8 milllion Ancestral Diaspora est. 28–40 milliona[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Scotland   4,459,071 (2001) (Scottish descent only) [3]
United States 9,365,490b [4][5]  Canada 4,719,850 [4]  Australia 1,501,204 [6]  Englandc 795,000  Argentina 100,000 [7]  Chile 80,000 [8]  New Zealandd 12,792 [9]  Isle of Man 2403 [10]
Languages
English (Scottish English) Scottish Gaelic • Scots
Religion
mainly Presbyterianism, also Roman Catholicism, Episcopalianism; other minority groups; agnostics and atheists.
Footnotes
a These figures are estimates based on official  census data of populations and official surveys of  identity.[11][12][13][14] b Scottish Americans. C Scottish born people in England only

The Scottish people (Scots Gaelic: Albannaich), or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse. Later the Normans also had some influence.

In modern use, "Scottish people" or "Scots" is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from within Scotland. The Latin word Scotti^[15] originally applied to a particular, 5th century, Goidelic tribe that inhabited Ireland.^[16] Though sometimes considered archaic or pejorative,^[17] the term Scotch has also been used for the Scottish people, though this usage is current primarily outside Scotland.^[18][19]

There are people of Scottish descent in many countries other than Scotland. Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish participation in the British Empire, and latterly industrial decline and unemployment, resulted in Scottish people being found throughout the world. Large populations of Scottish people settled the new-world lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. There is a Scottish presence at a particularly high rate in Canada, which has the second largest population of descended Scots ancestry, after the United States. They took with them their Scottish languages and culture.^[20]

Scotland has seen migration and settlement of peoples at different periods in its history. The Dalriadans, the Picts and the Britons had respective origin myths, like most Middle Ages European peoples.^[21] Germanic people such as Angles and Saxons arrived beginning in the 7th century while the Norse settled many regions of Scotland from the 8th century onwards. In the High Middle Ages, from the reign of David I of Scotland, there was some emigration from France, England and the Low Countries to Scotland. Many famous Scottish family names, including those bearing the names which became Bruce, Balliol, Murray and Stewart came to Scotland at this time. Today Scotland is one of the countries of the United Kingdom and the majority of people living in Scotland are British citizens.

The ethnic groups of Scotland[link]

In the Early Middle Ages, Scotland had several ethnic or cultural groups labelled as such in contemporary sources, namely the Picts, the Gaels, the Britons, with the Angles settling in the southeast of the country. Culturally, these peoples are grouped according to language. Most of Scotland until the 13th century spoke Celtic languages and these included, at least initially, the Britons, as well as the Gaels and the Picts.^[22] Germanic peoples included the Angles of Northumbria, who settled in south-eastern Scotland in the region between the Firth of Forth to the north and the River Tweed to the south. They also occupied the south-west of Scotland up to and including the Plain of Kyle and their language, Old English, was the earliest form of the language which eventually became known as Scots. Later the Norse arrived from Norway, Ireland and Denmark etc. in the north and west in quite significant numbers, recently discovered to have left about thirty percent of men in the Outer Hebrides with a distinct, Norse marker in their DNA. The evidence in the Northern Isles is higher.^{[citation needed]}

Use of the Gaelic language spread throughout nearly the whole of Scotland by the 9th century,^[23][24] reaching a peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, but was never the language of the south-east of the country.^[24][25]

After the division of Northumbria between Scotland and England by King Edgar (or after the later Battle of Carham; it is uncertain, but most medieval historians now accept the earlier 'gift' by Edgar) the Scottish kingdom encompassed a great number of English people, with larger numbers quite possibly arriving after the Norman invasion of England (Contemporary populations cannot be estimated so we cannot tell which population thenceforth formed the majority). South-east of the Firth of Forth then in Lothian and the Borders (OE: Loðene), a northern variety of Old English, also known as Early Scots, was spoken.

The Northern Isles and some parts of Caithness were Norn-speaking (the west of Caithness was Gaelic-speaking into the 20th Century, as were some small communities in parts of the Central Highlands). From 1200 to 1500 the Early Scots language spread across the lowland parts of Scotland between Galloway and the Highland line, being used by Barbour in his historical epic, 'The Brus' in the late 1300s in Aberdeen.

From 1500 until recent years, Scotland was commonly divided by language into two groups of people, Gaelic-speaking (formerly called Scottis by English speakers and known by many Lowlanders in the eighteenth century as 'Irish') "Highlanders" and the Inglis-speaking, later to be called, Scots-speaking, and later still, English-speaking "Lowlanders". Today, immigrants have brought other languages, but almost every adult throughout Scotland is fluent in the English language.

Scottish ancestry abroad[link]

John Wayne was of Presbyterian Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots descent.

Areas with greatest proportion of reported Scottish ancestry in the United States. Does not include those of Scots-Irish ancestry.

  0.0-0.9%

  1.0-1.7%

  1.8-2.7%

  2.8-4.2%

  4.3-9.1%

Today, Scotland has a population of just over five million people,^[26] the majority of whom consider themselves Scottish.^[27][28] In addition, there are many more people with Scots ancestry living abroad than the total population of Scotland. In the 2000 Census, 4.8 million Americans reported Scottish ancestry,^[29] 1.7% of the total U.S. population. Given Scotland's population (just over 5 million), there are almost as many Scottish Americans as there are native Scots living in their home country. Between 1717 and 1775 some 250,000 Ulster Scots emigrated to the American colonies.^[30] In Canada, according to the 2001 Census of Canada data, the Scottish-Canadian community accounts for 4,719,850 people.^[4] Scottish-Canadians are the 3rd biggest ethnic group in Canada. Scottish culture has particularly thrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland"). There, in Cape Breton, where both Lowland and Highland Scots settled in large numbers, Canadian Gaelic is still spoken by a small number of residents. Cape Breton is the home of the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts.

Large numbers of Scottish people reside in other parts of the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland, particularly Ulster where they form the Ulster-Scots community. The number of people of Scottish descent in England and Wales is impossible to quantify due to the ancient and complex pattern of migration within Great Britain. Of the present generation alone, some 800,000 people born in Scotland now reside in either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.^[31]

Other European countries have had their share of Scots immigrants. The Scots have been emigrating to mainland Europe for centuries as merchants and soldiers.^[32] Many emigrated to France, Poland,^[33] Italy, Germany, Scandinavia,^[34] and the Netherlands.^[35] Recently some scholars suggested that up to 250,000 Russians may have Scottish blood.^[36]

Significant numbers of Scottish people also settled in Australia and New Zealand. Approximately 20 percent of the original European settler population of New Zealand came from Scotland, and Scottish influence is still visible around the country.^[37] The South Island city of Dunedin, in particular, is known for its Scottish heritage and was named as a tribute to Edinburgh by the city's Scottish founders. In Australia, the Scottish population was fairly evenly distributed around the country.

In Latin America there are notable Scottish populations in Brazil, Argentina,^[38] Chile^[39] and Mexico.

The Scots and Continental Europe[link]

The Netherlands[link]