Rare/Unusual Surnames

Barclay · Post by **Barclay** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:49 pm

Hello all,

One of my lines includes the RAWER, sometimes RAWYER or RAYWER, family of Birse and probably Lumphannan at an earlier stage.

I believe the name is pretty much extinct now in NE Scotland and have not found any other significant record of it elsewhere in Scotland although there is a farm or hill named Rawer in the SW near Stranraer I think I found.. I have very limited info about this name but it appears in the NE about 1745 in the IGI. Does anyone have this name in their line or have a suggestion on where it may have come from? (Possibly German, a google shows a German witha website named Rawer)

Does anywone else have any unusal names that appear in a limited area for a time and then disappear?

Barclay

Post by **emanday** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:45 pm

I have ancestors with the surname Girtrig (other spellings Girtrigg, Gitrig/g, Gerthrigg, Girtridge, Gutrig, and a few others), all originating in Ayrshire back to 1600's.

In the same area there is, on old maps, a Girtrig Mill, Girtrig farm and Girtrig mound or mount.

My Great grandmother is the last one carrying this surname I have been able to find, although my Grandmother's middle name was Girtrig.

Another TS member told me there was a Scottish architect who also had the same middle name, but I have been unable to connect him to my ancestors.

trotterbeck · Post by **trotterbeck** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:49 pm

Hi

Barclay wrote:Hello all,

One of my lines includes the RAWER, sometimes RAWYER or RAYWER, family of Birse and probably Lumphannan at an earlier stage.

I believe the name is pretty much extinct now in NE Scotland and have not found any other significant record of it elsewhere in Scotland although there is a farm or hill named Rawer in the SW near Stranraer I think I found.. I have very limited info about this name but it appears in the NE about 1745 in the IGI. Does anyone have this name in their line or have a suggestion on where it may have come from? (Possibly German, a google shows a German witha website named Rawer)

Does anywone else have any unusal names that appear in a limited area for a time and then disappear?

Barclay

Checking on the site below it would appear that there were less than 100 individuals with these names in the whole of Great Britain in 1998 and because of that it can't give locations for 1881 either.

http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Surnames.aspx

delmarco · Post by **delmarco** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 2:55 am

Mary:

my 9th grade english teach in New York was Molly Gitrig, this would have been around (1977). It is an unusual name!

Karen

Post by **emanday** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:26 pm

Hi Karen,

I've wondered if some of them might have emigrated but have never managed to find any yet.

Maybe your English teacher is descended from the same family.

Muriel · Post by **Muriel** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:59 pm

Hi Barclay

Well my name is Sorbie & is, in Scotland, usually spelt that way - the English version is the one with the y. There are not that many of us & we can mostly trace ourselves back to the early 1700s in the Stonehouse area of Lanarkshire & there's still quite a lot of us there or thereabouts. (Family legend says we did come from Wigtownshire originally & took the name of the place when we moved). However, another Stonehouse/Lanarkshire name which appears in the records & on gravestones etc. is Muter & it has completely disappeared from that area. Perhaps if the families tended to have girls it just gradually died out - any Muters out there to confirm?

Muriel

delmarco · Post by **delmarco** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:31 pm

Mary
Could be , she was a sweet but tough old broad! I dont believe she was married, and was probably in her late 50's or early 60's then. I lost my high school yearbook in a firel but have e-mailed a pal to look her up, and see if there was any bio info on the teachers in it. I'll let you know.

Karen

Post by **emanday** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:03 pm

Hi Karen,

That would be great! Thank you so much for doing that.

My GG Grandmother was still working into her 70's, and that's after rearing six kids, so must have been a bit of a tough lady as well

David Lang · Post by **David Lang** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:36 pm

Well I have Testard from around Ballater in Aberdeenshire and Loynachan in Argyll which has been trnslated to Lang.

gavin2b · Post by **gavin2b** » Fri Dec 03, 2021 12:30 pm

Hi Barclay,

Don’t know if you are still around on here but I have been researching my family tree and the surname Rawer has cropped up as direct descendants of mine.

Reply to this if you are still here and we can possibly compare notess

TalkingScot.com

Rare/Unusual Surnames

Rare/Unusual Surnames

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