Scottish Place Names
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA


Plaque on Wallace Statue, Baltimore


For comparability with other large cities around the world, Greater Baltimore has been defined as the entire urban area including and surrounding the City of Baltimore. This area extends from Reisterstown, Cockeysville and Aberdeen in the north to the Howard Duckett Reservoir, Crofton and Annapolis in the south. This is a vast metropolitan area, typical of the urban sprawl that characterises American cities as a consequence of the steady population influx from rural areas, the post-WWII baby boom and the 1960s 'flight to the suburbs'.

A total of 2,300 communities and neighbourhoods have been identified to date in the Baltimore-Annapolis area. Of the names of these localities, 414 (18.0%) are based wholly or in part on Scottish family names, on place names that can be found in Scotland, or on Scottish words. Of course, many of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well but 149 (6.5%) of these appear to be exclusive to Scotland.

Communities, neighbourhoods and suburbs with names that occur only in Scotland and not elsewhere in the British Isles, and/or are definitely, or most probably, of Scottish origin are:

As in other cities around the world, not all of the above place names are necessarily based directly on their namesakes in Scotland. The connection with Scotland may be more indirect in some instances, for example, based on the name of an early Scottish settler. Examples where this may be the case would be gratefully received from readers in Greater Baltimore, for incorporation in future updates of this web page.

There are several clusters of neighbourhoods within the Greater Baltimore area that nearly all have definite or probable Scottish names. For instance, ten can be found in the north western suburbs centred on Roslyn (starting with Fishtown in the west and ending with Wellwood in the east) with Dunbar, Denmore Park and Lochearn not too far away. Another cluster is centred on Glen Burnie in the southern suburbs. The frequency of Scottish place names also increases in the Aberdeen area to the far north of metropolitan Baltimore, which is close to Delaware and southern Pennsylvania (areas in which many Scots-Irish from Ulster originally settled during the early eighteenth century).

Some of the following suburbs and neighbourhoods are likely to have a direct or indirect Scottish connection, but most of these names are also associated with other parts of the British Isles:

A third category of suburban names comprises places that definitely exist in Scotland, but the likelihood that the Greater Baltimore counterpart was named for Scotland is greatly reduced because these names are associated far more commonly with other parts of the British Isles. Most of the names of these neighbourhoods have an 'international' flavour and several may also have been borrowed from other American cities and towns.

A final category of neighbourhood and suburban names comprises places that can be found in Scotland, but which, in Baltimore's case, definitely or most probably have no connection with Scotland.

Other place names in Greater Baltimore that have a "Scottish ring" to them, but that have not yet been connected with places or names that are actually found in Scotland include:

Bar Kess Heights, Dunloggin, Gaman Orchards, Glenbauer, Glenmar, Glenmar Manor, Glenmont, Melvale, Padonia Park and Thistle.

Thistle Thistle sounds Scottish mainly because it is one of Scotland's national symbols (King James VII of Scotland - James II of England - founded the Order of the Thistle in 1687) but there are in fact many more places in England than in Scotland which have 'thistle' in their name. Concerning Bar Kess Heights, Kess is said to be a Scottish family name from Lanarkshire, one of the many variants of Cassie or Caisey, but this has not been confirmed by Black (1996), the authority on Scottish family names. Similarly, Gaman and Melvale are said to be Scottish family names but are not mentioned by Black. Padonia Park, on the other hand, may have a Scottish link if it is based on the family name of Padon, which Black suggests is a variant of the Scottish name Paton. Glenbauer is particularly interesting since it may represent a Scottish-German combination of place name elements. Similarly, Glenmont could well represent a Scots-French combination. Dunloggin appears to have no counterpart in Scotland, Scottish-sounding though it may be. Glenmar and Glenmar Manor might possibly be named for one of the Earls of Mar. John Erskine, 6th or 11th Earl of Mar (1675-1732) headed the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, aimed at restoring the Stewarts to the throne, but was defeated by the Duke of Argyll's government forces at Sheriffmuir. On the other hand, 'mar' may simply be a contraction of 'Maryland'.

Acknowledgements:

© Ian Kendall
Melbourne, Australia, October 2004
Revised January 2008

If you wish to contact Ian about his research, his e-mail address is iankendall@bigpond.com.



Use the "Back" button on your browser or click here to return to the Index of Scottish Place Names


Where else would you like to go in Scotland?

Google
  Web http://www.RampantScotland.com

Separator line