Shaw History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Shaw

What does the name Shaw mean?

The clans of the Pictish people in ancient Scotland were the ancestors of the first people to use the name Shaw. It was a name for a person who shared some of the qualities attributed to a wolf. Shaw is a nickname surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Nicknames form a broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, and can refer directly or indirectly to one’s personality, physical attributes, mannerisms, or even their habits of dress. The surname Shaw is derived from the Gaelic first name Sithech, which means wolf.

Early Origins of the Shaw family

The surname Shaw was first found in Perthshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Pheairt) former county in the present day Council Area of Perth and Kinross, located in central Scotland, where the family appears to have been firmly entrenched in the Eastern coastal regions well before 1000 AD.

While some claim that the Clan originally descended from a MacDuff, one of the ancient Earls of Fife, the first official mention in documents shows them to be present at the General Council held by King Malcolm at Forfar in 1061.

However, this ancient leadership was challenged by many other Clans Commyns (Cummings) who had leased the Shaw lands of Rothiemurchus.