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Why do tartan searches give so many names?
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Tartan Searches - Direct Matches
If you search our tartan finder for a name, the first results to be displayed will be any direct matches for that name in our database. This could be a match for the main Family Name. e.g. when you search for “brown” the first tartans returned with have names like “Brown Family” or “Brown Heather” (More...)Tartan Searches - Historically Related
Traditionally, tartans have been worn not just by people sharing the same family name, but also by many other families living in the same area or who gave allegiance to the same clan chief or other authority. To help you identify tartans your family might historically have worn, we will often list a choice of names (More...) When you search for a name that does not appear with that exact spelling in our database, but there is another name with a very similar spelling, we will list this as a Near Miss. In many cases this will in effect be the same name. Remember that surnames can be spelled in a huge variety of ways. (More...)
Tartan Searches - Closest Match
If the name you have searched for does not appear anywhere in our database, and there is no name with just a letter or two different, we will list the closest matches that do appear in our lists. This may sometimes help if your name is related but spelled quite differently. It is important to remember that (More...)Why does the tartan search sometimes return different names?
Our Tartan Finder tries to help you find a tartan that matches the name you search for, which it can do in various ways: Many family names can be spelled in a lot of different ways, but it is still the same family! For example Mc and Mac are mostly interchangeable, and the name Johnstone is (More...)