For comparability with other cities around the world, Regina has been defined as the City of Regina itself together with some of the nearby communities in the Rural Municipalities of Sherwood and Edenwold which are effectively outlying commuter suburbs. The area included within this definition extends from Waskana in the west to White City and Balgonie in the east and from Albatross and North Regina Industrial Park in the north to Rowatt in the south. Of the names of the 111 communities and neighbourhoods that have been identified to date in the Greater Regina area, 19 (17.1%) can be found in Scotland or are based on Scottish family names. Of course, some of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well but at least 12 of them (10.8%) are unique to Scotland or are readily identifiable with places in Scotland that are based on the same names.
Communities and neighbourhoods 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:
- Argyle Park - Argyle is an alternative spelling of Argyll, the large and ancient county that occupies much of the west of Scotland.
- Balgonie (Perth & Kinross; also Balgonie Cott and Balgonie South Parks in Fife). Balgonie Castle (pictured here) is near Milton of Balgonie in Fife.
- Douglas Place - there is a Douglas in Douglasdale, South Lanarkshire, the original territorial base of the powerful Douglas family. This Scottish surname also occurs as part of the name in numerous other places throughout Scotland and is found in England, Ireland and on the Isle of Man as well, possibly taken there by Scottish settlers.
- Dreghorn (City of Edinburgh and North Ayrshire).
- Glencairn and Glencairn Village - Villages called Glencairn are found in Aberdeenshire and Highland. Glencairn is also the name of a district in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a city which has many Scottish place names.
- Highland Park - possibly recalling the Highlands of Scotland, though this is one of the most commonly recurring place names in North American cities. The illustration shows Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.
- Normanview (Fife) and Normanview West by association.
- Pinkie (Pinkie Braes and Pinkie House in East Lothian). In 1547, the English defeated the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, near Edinburgh. The battle was sparked by English demands that Edward VI of England (aged 10) should marry Mary Queen of Scots (aged 5), an event known as the 'Rough Wooing'. It is estimated that 15,000 Scots were killed and that 1,500 were captured, the English losses amounting to only 500. It seems strange therefore that Scots settlers would want to commemorate such an ignominious defeat. Pinkie is also the Scots word (borrowed from Dutch) for 'little finger' - another strange reason for naming a place!
- Richardson - There are no places anywhere in Britain with the name Richardson, apart from an archaeological site in Wiltshire, southern England which was presumably named for someone with the surname Richardson. Richardson is a Lowland Scottish family name meaning, quite literally, 'son of Richard'. In Scotland, the Richardson's are associated with clans Buchanan and Ogilvie. The tartan shown here is the modern Buchanan.
- Transcona - this name honours Lord Strathcona (Donald Alexander Smith, born in Forres, Scotland in 1820), a pioneer of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is a name that was made up from a combination of National Transcontinental Railway and Lord Strathcona. There is also a Transcona in Winnipeg, from which Regina possibly borrowed the name (or vice-versa).
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, honouring individuals whose ancestry may have been Scottish. Examples where this could be the case would be gratefully received from readers in Regina, for incorporation in future updates of this web page.
Other neighbourhoods with names that can be found in Scotland but that are not unique to Scotland are:
- Belvedere (West Lothian) also in England, and the famous Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Austria. Belvedere was a popular choice of name for localities during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a belvedere as a "raised turret to view scenery from" (a word formed from the Italian words for 'beautiful' and 'see').
- Churchill Downs - Churchill is a district of the City of Edinburgh, but the name occurs far more frequently in England and is also found in Wales.
- Crawford Estates (Crawford, South Lanarkshire) also Crawford, Lancashire and Crawfordsburn in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Crawford (sometimes spelt Crauford) is a lowland Scottish name - its tartan is shown here. The name goes back to at least the 13th century. William Wallace's mother is believed to have been the daughter of Sir Hugh Crawford, Sheriff of Ayr.
- 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 Canada, the USA and Australia it would seem.
- Ross Industrial Park - Places called Ross can be found in the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Highland and Perth & Kinross. There are also many other places throughout Scotland that have Ross as part of the name. However, the same is true for England and Ireland, though less commonly so than for Scotland. Ross is of course a fairly common Scottish family name originating nearly 900 years ago from two very different sources: Yorkshire in northern England (the Ayrshire Ross's) and that part of the Highlands of Scotland once known as Ross-shire. That's the Ross tartan shown here.
- Westhill Park - there are places called Westhill in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Highland and Perth & Kinross; also Westhill Cott (Aberdeenshire) and Westhill Wood (Scottish Borders). Being a descriptive name, Westhill is commonly encountered in England as well.
- Woodland Grove - there is a Woodland in South Ayrshire as well as in five English counties.
Glenelm Park, Glenelm Park South and Innsmore also have a Scottish ring to them but cannot be traced to any places in Scotland. One wonders whether Innsmore has any reference to the Scottish family name of Innes. Glenelm is probably a made-up name, possibly borrowed from Winnipeg.
Acknowledgements:
Scottish influences on the development of Saskatchewan's capital city (which was founded as recently as 1882) are clearly evident in the names of many of its streets, parks and sports centres. Several thoroughfares and other main roads have Scottish sounding names. These are: Angus Road, Argyle Road (Lakeview South), Argyle Street North (Coronation Park and Argyle Park), Bell Street, Dalgliesh Drive, Douglas Avenue, Edinburgh Drive, Elphinstone Street, Gordon Road, Grant Drive and Road (both in Whitmore Park), Henderson Drive, McAra Street, McDonald Street, McIntosh Street, McKinley Avenue and McMurchy Avenue. The picture shows Argyle Street in Glasgow.
The names of many ordinary streets throughout the city also have Scottish names. These are particularly numerous in the city centre, the Cathedral Area to its west and Broders Annex to its east. Of the 44 streets running from north to south within this central area, starting with Pasqua Street in the west and ending with Francis Street in the east, at least 16 (36%) bear Scottish names. From west to east one finds McTavish Street, Argyle Street, Elphinstone Street (major thoroughfare), Athol Street, Cameron Street, Rae Street, Angus Street, McIntyre Street, Lorne Street (that's the Firth of Lorne in Argyll shown here), Hamilton Street, Wallace Street, Elliott Street, Lindsay Street, McDonald Street (main road), McAra Street (main road) and MacKay Street. The other names in this particular series of streets are either English or Cornish (e.g., Retallack, Cornwall, Scarff and Atkinson) or honour Canadian capital cities or royalty. The Scottish theme is by far the most evident, however.
Parks include Argyle Park (Lakeview South), Glencairn Village Park (Glencairn Village), Douglas Park (Douglas Place), Grant Road Park (Whitmore Park), Leslie Park (part of the Regina Exhibition Park complex), McMurchy Park (Coronation Park), Richardson Park (Whitmore Park), Wilfrid Walker Park (Gardiner Park) and A.E. Wilson Park (Mount Royal). Sports venues include the Al Ritchie Memorial Arena, Caledonian Curling Club on Sandra Schmirler Way, Currie Field Ball Diamond, Highland Curling Club, Jack Hamilton Arena, Leslie Lawn Bowling Greens, Murray Balfour Arena in Massey Park, Scotty Livingston Field Ball Diamond and Tartan Curling Rink. In addition, two of the 12 golf courses in Regina have Scottish names: Craig Golf Course and Murray Golf Course and there is also a Maxwell's Amusements centre at the eastern end of Victoria Avenue. Civic Buildings with Scottish sounding names include the Dunlop Art Gallery, MacKenzie Art Gallery, T. C. Douglas Building and Walter Scott Building, while nearly 20% of the 78 public, private and separate schools in Regina appear to have Scottish names (Campbell, Cochrane, MacNeill, Scott and St Andrew among ten others). It can be concluded, from the above analysis, that Scottish settlers and administrators certainly left their mark on Regina.
- George F. Black (1996). The Surnames of Scotland. (Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh).
- James D. Scarlett (1975). The Tartans of the Scottish Clans. (Collins, Glasgow and London).
- Collins Gem Scots Dictionary (1995). (HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow).
- Regina Pocket Street Atlas, 2005. (MapArt Publishing, Oshawa).
- Websites, place name gazetteers and published Ordnance Survey maps of British and Irish cities, towns, villages and counties.
© Ian Kendall
If you wish to contact Ian about his research, his e-mail address is iankendall@bigpond.com.
Melbourne, Australia, November 2005
