Re: Origin of Patterson surname
Posted by: Tracy S Patterson Date: March 16, 1999 at 00:52:33
In Reply to: Origin of Patterson surname by Mary Jordan
From the "Scottish Clan and Family Encylopedia"
"In gaelic this name is given as MacPhadraig, possibly a shortened form of MacGille Phadraig, son of the devotee of St. Patrick. This indicates that the eponymous ancestor may have been either a churchman (the celtic church allowed priest to marry) or a layman with an office in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Pattersons settled on the shores of Loch Fyne (the Clan Pheadirean in Argyle) around the end of the thirteenth century, and the name soon became wide spread in the Lowlands, where it is now among the twenty most common surnames."
The name Patterson is also associated with five Highland Clans: Campbell, Lamont, MacLaren, Farquharson and MacAuley.
The is no difference between Paterson and Patterson.
Re: Origin of Patterson surname
Posted by: Bob Patterson sunnyside@pdq.net
Date: January 10, 1999 at 06:55:34
In Reply to: Origin of Patterson surname by Mary Jordan
The surname PATTERSON was (according to texts that I have read) among the 20 most common names of lowland Scotland. Written references in history find the name in Scotland as far back as the Middle Ages. The Gaelic version of the name is Mac'Phaidrig (I'm probably spelling that wrong) or son of Patrick. In the early 1600's, many lowland Scots (including many Pattersons) moved to Northern Ireland called Ulster in an experiment by King James to populate the area with Protestants. By the early 1700's many of these Scots-Irish families found the conditions harsh and intolerable and immigrated to the promise of a better live in America. Although some settled in the coastal states, most ended up in the frontier of PA and descendants migrated down into NC and SC and spread from there. There were some families (including Pattersons) that emigrated straight from Scotland to the U.S.
That's it in a nutshell. Hope it was a help.
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Last updated May 2000 by Web Genealogist Chris Stefanovich.