Simply ask for Goup-the-Lift
August 2006
James ‘Cocky Dick’ Reid (left): A great-great-grandparent. There is no evidence that he had a military background. Perhaps he just liked dressing up! Helen ‘Latin’ Smith (centre): A great-great-grandparent. She was married in 1866. George ‘Moochs’ Thain (right): A grandparent. He had a varied career as fisherman, whaler and seaman in both the Merchant and Royal Navy.
by John Nisbet
There is an old joke recorded by the Banffshire Field Club in 1917. “A stranger had occasion to call on a fisherman in one of the Buchan coast villages of the name of Alexander White. Meeting a girl he asked, ‘Could you tell me far Sanny Fite lives?’ ‘Filk Sanny Fite?’ ‘Muckle Sanny Fite.’ ‘Filk Muckle Sanny Fite?’ ‘Muckle lang Sanny Fite.’ ‘Filk Muckle lang Sanny Fite?’ ‘Muckle lang gleyed Sanny Fite,’ shouted the stranger. ‘Oh, it’s Goup-the-Lift ye’re seekin,’ cried the girl, ‘an’ fat the deevil for dinna ye speer for the man by his richt name at ance?”
In towns on the Moray coast certain surnames predominate. The electoral roll for Buckie records over 200 Coulls, and as many Smiths, Murrays and Cowies. Peterhead has its Buchans, Rosehearty its Ritchies, Inverallochy its Duthies and Strachans.
Tee-names are found all up the North-East coast. In Avoch in the Black Isle, for example, where Fiona Reid, a student of Bill Nicolaisen, made a study of tee-names, one-third of the pupils on the 1950 school roll had Patience or Jack as surnames. By-names in Brora and Golspie in Sutherland were studied by Nancy Dorian in the 1970 Journal of the School of Scottish Studies.
Flett, Sutherland and Thain are surnames of parents and grandparents in our Findochty family. In the current electoral register for Findochty, there are 29 Fletts and 36 Sutherlands. Today there is greater mobility than in the past: in the 1914-15 voters’ roll for Findochty, which recorded only males, there were 84 Fletts and 39 Sutherlands. Other towns on the coast similarly have their common surnames: Findlay and Gardiner in Cullen, Pirie and Wood in Portknockie, and Reid in Portgordon.
The explanation of the common surnames is to be found in the deep sense of community in these small towns. They had little in common with the people living in the rural hinterland which was primarily a farming culture. Wives played an important part in the work of the community: no fisherman would want a wife who could milk a cow, and no farmer would look for skill in mending nets. ‘Cod and corn dinna gang the gither’, was the saying.
Marriage opportunities in the fishing towns on the coast were thus limited. Many of the women would go round the inland farms with baskets of fish to sell, but marriage was only to be considered within the community. This is changing rapidly now, but even so the bonds of community are still strong.
Naming children after older members of the family is an old Scottish custom. An added confusion is that names would be re-used if children died. Sometimes there are precise rules for this, and older generations may be offended if these customs are not observed. Thus, the first son to be born is given the name of his paternal grandfather, and the first daughter is named after her maternal grandmother. Alternatively, first names may pass directly from father to son, or mother to daughter: Joe Wallace’s father’s name was Joe Wallace. And when families were large, names of close relatives were given to the later children. As a result, many individuals within an extended family may have the same surname and first name.
Tee-names may even be included in formal documents such as marriage and death certificates, or on gravestones. Not only are names replicated but – since families often live in their own area of town – even addresses may be common. There are six Sutherlands in the phonebook for Morven Crescent, Findochty. Assuming an average of two people at each address, this could be a dozen or so in the same street. That’s why people have tee-names!
This was more of a problem in the past, for the use of street names is relatively modern: as recently as the 1881 census no street names were given in Findochty. In Buckie, the 1861 census records 25 George Cowies living within a few streets of each other.
The cemetery which stands on the hill between Portknockie and Findochty is worth a visit. In the eastern part of the old cemetery, the Portknockie side, the Portknockie names, Wood and Mair, are most common. In the west part nearer to Findochty, the names on the stones tend to be Flett or Sutherland or Thain and Smith, the Findochty surnames.
Tee-names in the Wallace family tree from Findochty include: George ‘Moochs’ Thain, George ‘Sailor’ Thain, Helen ‘Latin’ Smith, Jane ‘Granny Dossie’ Cowie and Nellie ‘Dougal’ Cowie, and Janet ‘Pap’ Garden. The origin of ‘Sailor’ seems fairly obvious. But why ‘Latin’? – it seems highly unlikely that it had anything to do with her school work, though she could certainly sign her marriage certificate in 1866. Another relation who lived in Buckie was James ‘Cocky Dick’ Reid, and his photograph may give some clue to that tee-name.
Tee-names go back a long time. When the Duke of Gordon founded Portgordon about 1797, he chose 10 fishermen from other villages to establish themselves and their families there. Peter Geddes, an ancestor eight generations back, was one of these and he was always referred to as Peter ‘Senior’. A later relative in Portgordon was known as Alexander ‘Duke’ Geddes. Another was James ‘Beamer’ Hendry – did he blush at the wrong time? Jessie Ann Duncan was known as ‘Jeannie Rathven’, presumably because she came from Rathven.
But what is the origin of another Portgordon relative, Peter ‘Napsey’ Geddes? The Concise Scots Dictionary defines nappie as ‘slightly intoxicated’, and Napsey died when he fell from a bridge over the Burn of Tynet by Portgordon and drowned. A relative in Nairn had the name of Isobella ‘Captain’ Main; was her father a ship’s master?
Nancy Dorian in her 1970 paper suggests four categories of derivation: genealogical (family names); descriptive (physical characteristics); derisive (jokingly offensive); and nonsense (where there is no explanation, but where we would link it with some personal anecdote).
The Banff Field Club 1916 article tells of a fisher lad from Banff who was told, ‘Ye’re gey birkie’ (smart, with a hint of being sharp or even conceited), and he was ‘Birkie’ for the rest of his life. The paper lists a great variety of tee-names, some of which are still to be found today: Lad, Codlin, Jocksie, Costie, Sanker, Bosan, Gyke, Steiner and Curly.
One of our relations is known as Aunt Kay. Her given name was Jessie Ann. How did she come to be called ‘Kay’? At school, she was called Jessica by her teacher, as there already was a Jessie in her class. A youngster with a speech impediment could not pronounce Jessica; he called her Deckikie, and so she got the tee-names Deck and Kie (or Kay).
Outsiders are inclined to assume that these tee-names are just nicknames, but there is a subtle difference. Tee-names are part of a person’s name, they are accepted communally and have a degree of permanence, and may be included in documents such as marriage certificates. Their function is different, for they are used to give a personal identity to an individual sharing a common name with others in the town.
Tee-names are only one of a number of naming practices to be found in North-East Scotland. For example, in Fishertown, Nairn, there were different lines of Mains: Main Coggs, Main Bailey, Main Bain, Main Bochel and Main Wallace. These names were sometimes given in parenthesis after ‘Main’ in marriage certificates. The word ‘Main’ sometimes disappeared between generations. Thus, in our family, a great-grandfather was Daniel Main Wallace, but his son, our grandfather Alexander Wallace, never used Main. Apparently this was common about the end of the 19th and early 20th century, perhaps because of the advent of compulsory schooling and school registers compiled by teachers who were not local.
A saying little known outside the region is ‘Fa ya’s you?’ which translates as ‘Who are you descended from?’ Our guess is that this is the complementary aspect of tee-names. It would probably be used in addressing someone such as one of the authors, of local descent but not living locally.
John Nisbet acknowledges the considerable help of Joe Wallace in compiling this material.
John Nisbet was Professor of Education at Aberdeen University from 1963 to 1988. His interests include orienteering, golf, hill-walking and even occasional rock-climbing, as well as amateur archaeology.
This is an article from the August 2006 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.
My father was from Buckie his name was George Sutherland Reid. any connection?
— Frances Geesin 19 October 2006 #
I enjoyed this article my father was a Smith (Latin)and my mother a Thain both names in the photograph they must link into me somehow…
— Jean Miles 30 October 2006 #
Hello,
enjoyed reading your site.I wonder if any of your readers could help me.
My grandfather was born at 28 Front Street,
Rathven,Banff in 1882.
Does anyone know if this
Street still exsists.
Regards
Diane
— Diane Horne 25 December 2006 #