Ulster Surnames - Anderson

I bought this book some time ago on eBay for £1.75 plus postage and packaging - worth every penny!

 

It was an ex St Patricks Library book from Co. Antrim and was published by The Blackstaff Press and written / compiled by Robert Bell, Linen Hall Library, Belfast in 1988.

 

 

Anderson - (also Andrews)

The Scottish name Anderson, which is among the forty most common names in Ulster, has two principal origins, both of which derive from the Greek name Andrew, meaning 'manly'. In Scotland the names among the ten most common and the majority of those names are low-landers. In this case Anderson means 'Andrew's Son', as indeed does the name Andrews. As the name of the Scottish patron saint, Andrew was a very popular christian name and both Andrews and Anderson sprang up, as patronymics, in a wide variety of locations. Most of the Ulster Andersons and Andrews's are of Lowland stock, their ancestors arriving before, during and after the Plantation of Ulster. A family of Andersons was one of the lesser of the riding clans of the Scottish Borders. They lived in Redsdale on the English side of the Middle March.

 

However, earlier in Scotland the name of the patron saint had been gaelicised as Andrais. There is mention in early records of the name Mac Gillie Andreis, meaning 'son of the servant' of (St) Andrew. This name was anglicised to Anderson, Andrews, MacAndrew, and Gillanders. Gillanders is also found frequently in Co. Monaghan, where it is an Irish name of the same Gaelic derivation. The Clan Donald Mac Gillie Andrais set were numerous in the West of Scotland, particularly on Islay and Kintyre. They later anglicised their name to Anderson, and the Andersons of Rathlin Island, off the County Antrim coast and many of those in North Antrim ore of this origin. (MacLandish, another Anglicisation of the Gaelic name, is also common on Rathlin.

 

In the mid-nineteenth century the main Co. Antrim concentration of Andersons was found to be in the barony of Lower Antrim near Broughshane and in the main Co. Down centre was in the barony of Ards near Newtownards. The Andersons are also numerous in Co. Londonderry.

 

HMA