A similar list has been created for:
Elsewhere on Rampant Scotland there is a collection of Scottish Placenames which can be found in other parts of the world - probably taken there by Scottish emigrants. But Ian Kendall, who now lives in Melbourne, has been researching more deeply into Scottish placenames around the world and he has produced an impressive list of the suburbs of a number of towns and cities with Scottish connections - this page covers Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Of the names of the 269 urban and semi-urban suburbs in the city of Port Elizabeth and the neighbouring towns of Uitenhage and Despatch, an area known since 2001 as the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, 53 (19.7%) can be found in Scotland. Of course, some of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well, but many of them (10.8%) are unique to Scotland, are based on Scottish family names, or are readily identifiable with places in Scotland that are based on the same names.
Suburbs, neighbourhoods and townships with names that occur only in Scotland and not elsewhere in the British Isles are/or are definitely or most probably of Scottish origin, are:
- Alexander Park Industrial - Alexander is a Scottish family name, branches of the family being septs of Clans MacAlister, MacDonald or MacDonnell of Glengarry, though the name has since travelled to England, for example, Alexander House in Kent.
- Craig Bain - there is a Baincraig in Fife though this is not the origin of the name of the small township in central Port Elizabeth, which was named in 1940 after Councillor S. Craig Bain. Bain is a Scottish family name.
- Ferguson - although there are no places in Scotland called Ferguson, this is definitely a Scottish name. The Ferguson clan has numerous branches, the name meaning 'first choice' in Gaelic. The Ferguson tartan is shown here. Margaret Harradine, in a personal communication, stated that Dr Duncan Ferguson was the City's Medical Officer of Health for many years.
- Gelvandale and Gelvan Park (Gelvan in Perth & Kinross). These suburbs were named in honour of Councillor C.M.S. Gelvan (Raper, 1989).
- Glendinningvale (Glendinning, and Glendinning Burn, Cleuch and Heights in Dumfries & Galloway) also Glendinningrigg just over the border in Cumbria. John James (Jack) Glendinning was a City Councillor and Mayor in 1944/45. He came from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, though his name is obviously Scottish. (Margaret Harradine, personal communication).
- Glenhurd - although there is no known place in Scotland with this name, Hurd is a variant spelling of the Scottish surname of Herd. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was fairly common practice for Scots immigrants to name their homes or farms after themselves and to prefix the name with 'Glen'.
- Glenroy Park - Glenroy is a valley in Lochaber, a scenic area in the west Highlands of Scotland.
- Greenshields Park (Greenshields in South Lanarkshire). The suburb takes its name from the property called "Greenshields". The property was named by a grandson of the Reverend Thomas Paterson, a Congregational minister from Edinburgh, whose wife's maiden name was Greenshields (Margaret Harradine, personal communication).
- Hoy (one of the Orkney Islands). The origin of the name of this suburb is not necessarily Scottish, however, since Hoy is also an Irish family name.
- Humewood and Humerail (there is a Hume in the Scottish Borders, as well as Humehall, Hume Castle (pictured here), Hume Craigs, Hume Mill and Hume Orchard; also Humesett and Humeston in Ayrshire). Humewood is Port Elizabeth's premier seaside suburb. It was established in 1860 and was named after William Hume, Member of the Legislative Assembly and Chairman of the Harbour Board, which owned the land. In the case of Humerail, the name reflected the practice of the former Railway Authorities of naming railway property after the suburb near which it is located together with the word 'rail' (see Belrail in the Rampant Scotland article on Cape Town as another example involving a Scottish surname).
- Lindsay Road Industrial - there is a Lindsayfield in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire. Lindsay is a Scottish family name, first found in Lanarkshire.
- Linkside - The name of this suburb is descriptive of its location along the southern boundary of the Port Elizabeth Golf Course. Linkside does not occur as a place name in Scotland, but the word 'links' is a Scots word meaning 'undulating, sandy ground near a shore' or a golf course on such land.
- Marchantdale - Marchant a Scottish family name of Norman origin, from the Old French word for a merchant.
- McLeanville - based on a Scottish family name; there is a McLean Museum in Greenock, Inverclyde. Laid out in 1928, the suburb was named after a former mayor of Port Elizabeth.
- McNaughton - an ancient Scottish family name meaning 'son of Nechtan' ('the pure one') in Gaelic.
- Morningside (Dumfries & Galloway, City of Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and Perth & Kinross) - see the illustration above for a typical Morningside, Edinburgh residence. Morningside is one of the most commonly recurring Scottish place names in cities around the world, especially in South Africa and the USA.
- Motherwell (a large town in South Lanarkshire - that's its Heritage Centre shown here). Motherwell is recorded on earlier maps of Port Elizabeth as being the name of a farm. It was one of three farms in the area that had Scottish names, the other two being Paisley (see below) and Kelvin Grove. All three of these names are from the Greater Glasgow area. Today, the Port Elizabeth suburbs of Motherwell and Paisley form part of the sprawling complex of townships in the far north of the city that have sprung up in recent years to accommodate the mass migration of black people from the rural hinterland.
- Neave Industrial Township (Neave Island in Highland, near Torrisdale, also known as Coomb Island). This suburb was named for John Sime Neave, MBE, Mayor of Port Elizabeth 1946-47, whose ancestors were Scottish. The Neave family was originally from Forfar, Scotland, and John Sime's great-grandfather was David Neave, the town architect of Dundee, Scotland (information supplied by Eleanor Rayl, Indianapolis, USA).
- Normanville - Norman is said to be a Scottish family name of Norse origin, from the Viking 'noromenn' (men from the north). Of course, the name of this suburb may refer, instead, to the personal name Norman.
- Paisley (a large town in Renfrewshire). Like Motherwell (see above), Paisley was originally the name of a local farm off the main road between Coega and Uitenhage. The picture here shows Paisley Abbey.
- Red Braes (Redbraes in the Orkney Islands).
- Rowallan Park (Rowallan and Rowallan Castle in East Ayrshire). Most of the streets and roads in the eastern section of this suburb have Scottish names (Angus, Carrick, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Greenock, Kinross, Lothian, Peeble, Renfrew and Sterling). Peeble and Sterling appear to be corruptions of Peebles and Stirling.
- Scotstoun (City of Glasgow). As explained by Margaret Harradine in a personal communication, Scotstoun was named in 1929/30 after the Mayor of Port Elizabeth, James Scott from Dunoon. This neighbourhood in Mill Park Township was originally to have been called "Scottville". It is a small area of around 45 lots and James Scott lived nearby.
- Struandale - there is a Struan in Angus, Argyll & Bute, Highland and Perth & Kinross.
- Stuart - a Scottish family name; there is a Stuartfield in Aberdeenshire based on this name.
- Taybank (Perth & Kinross).
- Tiryville - According to the House of Names Heraldic website, Tiry is a Scottish family name first recorded in Argyllshire and related to MacIntyre. Black (1996), the authority on Scottish family names, makes no mention of Tiry but if the 'House of Names' information is correct, then the origin of Tiry as a family name is occupational, from the Gaelic word for a carpenter.
Ben Kamma, Fernglen and Willowglen also have a "Scottish ring" to them, but have not yet been established as place names that actually exist in Scotland or that are connected with Scotland in other ways. Ben Kamma may in fact be a possibly unique combination of a Scottish element (Ben, from the Gaelic 'beinn' meaning a mountain) and a Khoikhoi/Hottentot element (Kamma, from '//gami', meaning water, river or pool).
Other suburbs and townships with names that can be found in Scotland but that are not unique to Scotland are:
- Barris Township - there is a Barrisdale in Highland but there is also a Barris Hill in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Margaret Harradine, in a personal communication, speculates that the name of this township may be attributed to the Barris family, one of whose members was a City Councillor from 1955. The Barris family is Jewish, and "assuming they are like everyone else in our present Jewish Community, they came from one of the Eastern European countries such as Latvia, Lithuania etc and changed their surname at some point." (Margaret Harradine, personal communication, 21 April, 2006). According to the House of Names Heraldic website, Barris is a German surname.
- Broadwood (South Ayrshire) also in England.
- Cleary Estate - there is a Clearymuir in Aberdeenshire, the only occurrence of the name Cleary on the British mainland. Cleary is an Irish family name, however, which suggests that the origin of the name of this suburb might not necessarily be Scottish. The suburb was named after D.J. Cleary, Director of Housing for the Municipality of Port Elizabeth, who developed this part of the original Bethelsdorp lands. (Margaret Harradine, personal communication, 21 April, 2006).
- Florida (Scottish Borders, near Castleton) but more probably of American origin.
- Forest Hill (a hill in Dumfries & Galloway) but far more likely to be named for one of the many places in England, including the south London suburb.
- Glenhaven - there are places simply called Glen in Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands, as well as two places in Ireland. In addition, there are hundreds of places in both Scotland and Ireland and a few in England and Wales with Glen as an element in the name. Glen means 'valley' in Gaelic.
- Greenacres (Scottish Borders) also all over England.
- Hillside (Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Edinburgh, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Inverclyde, Moray, Orkney Islands, Perth & Kinross, Shetland Islands and South Lanarkshire) but just as commonly found in England, sometimes spelt Hill Side, and is also found in Wales.
- Hunters Retreat - Hunter occurs in many place names throughout Scotland and is also a frequently found surname - that's the clan tartan shown here. The list includes Aberdeenshire (Hunter's Hill and Lodge), Angus (Hunter's Path and Hunters Hill), Argyll & Bute (Hunter's Quay), Scottish Borders (Hunter Hill and Huntershall), Dumfries & Galloway (Hunter House, Hunter's Gate, Hunterheck), East Ayrshire (Hunter's Meadow, Hunterston), North Ayrshire (Hunterston, Hunterston House, Hunterston Sands), Perth & Kinross (Hunterhall) and South Lanarkshire (Hunterlees). Hunter is found even more commonly throughout England.
- Linton Grange (Linton in the Orkney Islands and Scottish Borders; also Linton Burnfoot and Linton Hill in the Scottish Borders, Linton Court in Fife, and Linton House in Aberdeenshire) but Linton is even more common in England than in Scotland. The suburb was laid out in 1953 and, according to Raper (1989), was named after a former mayor of Port Elizabeth, Archibald Linton, whose ancestry has not been recorded. Linton is a Scottish family name from the border region, first found in Peebles.
- Mill Park (Argyll & Bute) also in Cornwall, England. The origin of the name of this suburb is neither Scottish nor English, however. "Mill Park includes land once known as the Mill Property from an old windmill built by a German millwright and farmer in the late 1820s." (Margaret Harradine, personal communication, 21 April, 2006).
- Mount Pleasant (Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, Fife, Highland, Moray and the Orkney Islands) also all over England, Ireland and Wales, as well as Australia, Canada and the USA it would seem.
- Mountain View (Scottish Borders) also in Cumbria, England. The name of this Uitenhage suburb is probably purely descriptive of its commanding view of one of the nearby mountain ranges.
- Newton Park (Argyll & Bute) also in England and Wales.
- Parkside (Aberdeenshire, Angus, North Lanarkshire and Perth & Kinross) also in England and Wales.
- Redhouse (Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, East Lothian and Fife) also found in England.
- Sea View (Highland, spelt Seaview) also two places in England, spelt Seaview.
- South End (Argyll & Bute) also in England. Since this suburb is at the southern end of the city centre, the name would appear to be purely descriptive of its geographical situation (the opposite end of the city centre is similarly called North End).
- Springfield (Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Highland and Perth & Kinross) also in England and Wales.
- Vanes Estate - there is a wildlife centre and bird sanctuary at Vane Farm on Loch Leven in Perth & Kinross. However, there are also two places called Vane Court in south-east England, while Vanes or Vane is an alternative form of the Welsh surname of Vaughan.
- Victoria Park (City of Glasgow - see illustration) also all over England. This neighbourhood, like its namesakes in England and Scotland, was presumably named for Queen Victoria.
- West End (South Lanarkshire) but even more commonly found in England and to a lesser extent in Wales.
- Woodlands (Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Highland, Perth & Kinross and South Lanarkshire) also all over England and is found in Ireland and Wales as well. There are two places called Woodlands in the Port Elizabeth metropolitan area, one in the western suburbs and the other in Uitenhage.
Sadly, reminders of the strong links that were forged between Port Elizabeth and Scotland during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries are being eroded as names such as Craig Bain and Scotstoun, although still recorded on some maps, become disused. Most Port Elizabethans would look at you blankly if you asked for directions on how to get to Scotstoun, including those who may actually live in the neighbourhood, since 'home' for them has always been Mill Park.
There are 11 metropolitan areas in South Africa with a population of half a million or more. Of these, Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage seems to share the distinction, along with East London, of having the highest proportion of suburban names with Scottish connections. This is understandable since South Africa's fifth largest city owes its very existence to the 4,000 British immigrants who landed at Algoa Bay in 1820 and to their descendants and later British immigrants. The Scots certainly played a central part in the establishment of Port Elizabeth and in its subsequent growth as a commercial and industrial city. Margaret Harradine, the former Africana Librarian at the Port Elizabeth Main Library, states that "Port Elizabeth had a large Scottish population, virtually all coming from the Edinburgh area and counties such as Angus, Aberdeen and Fife."
Acknowledgements:
- Harradine, Margaret (1995). Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the End of 1945. (E.H. Walton Packaging (Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth).
- Raper, P.E. (1989). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names (Second Edition). (Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg).
- Hockly, Harold E. (1957). The Story of the British Settlers of 1820 in South Africa (Second Edition). (Juta & Co., Limited, Cape Town).
- Black, George F. (1996). The Surnames of Scotland. (Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh).
- Scarlett, James D. (1975). The Tartans of the Scottish Clans. (Collins, Glasgow and London).
- The House of Names Heraldic website.
- Port Elizabeth Street Plan (MapStudio, 1996).
- Brabys website for a list of suburbs in the Uitenhage, Despatch and Motherwell areas.
- Collins Gem Scots Dictionary (1995). (HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow).
- Websites, place name gazetteers and published Ordnance Survey maps of British and Irish cities, towns, villages and counties.
© Ian Kendall
Melbourne, Australia, May 2004
Revised March 2007If you wish to contact Ian about his research, his e-mail address is ian.kendall1@bigpond.com.
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