WHITELAW
Whitelaw is a locational surname of Anglo‑Saxon and Scottish provenance. The name is derived from the Old English hwit, meaning “white”, and hlaw, meaning “hill”. It originally identified inhabitants who lived near or upon a hill that was chalky or appeared white to the eye.
The earliest surviving reference dates from the thirteenth century and records the name John de Wytelowe in 1296 in the registers of Scotland. Subsequent documentary evidence shows a continuity of the family name on the borderlands between England and Scotland: John Whitelaw (1430), Archibald de Quhitelaw (1470), Patrick Quhitlaw (1560) and William Whitlau (1736). These records illustrate the gradual evolution of spelling that continues to the modern forms Whitelaw, Whitlaw and Whytelaw.
The surname is associated with specific placenames in the Scottish Lowlands. Two baronies were recorded in the early modern period: the lands of Whitelaw in the parish of Morebattle and the barony of Whitelaw in the parish of Bowden. The name is therefore both a topographic and habitational reference for those who settled in these areas.
Whitelaw is classed as a topographic surname, a category that includes names given to people who lived adjacent to significant natural features. In the case of the Whitelaw family, the feature in question was a hill whose soil or surface was white or chalky, a characteristic that would have been pronounced in the northern English‑Scottish borderlands of the pre‑Norman era.
Within the United Kingdom, the name remains most frequent in Scotland and in the northern counties of England. Emigration during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries carried bearers of the name to colonies and dominions such as Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. The diaspora has produced various spelling variants, yet the classic forms persevere in the UK and among descendants abroad.
Other spellings known to have appeared over time include Whittelaw, Whitlow, Whittle and Wittle. Such variations arose from differences in pronunciation, regional dialect and the level of literacy in the population, as well as occasional clerical errors in parish and land records.
Typical given names associated with the Whitelaw surname
Male
- Alan
- Alexander
- Andrew
- David
- George
- James
- John
- Robert
- Thomas
- William
Female
- Catherine
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Julie
- Karen
- Linda
- Margaret
- Mary
- Sandra
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Whitelaw in...
Braille
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Morse
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There are approximately 3,454 people named Whitelaw in the UK. That makes it roughly the 2,647th most common surname in Britain. Around 53 in a million people in Britain are named Whitelaw.
Famous people named Whitelaw
- Billie Whitelaw - Actress (1932 to 2014)
- William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw - Conservative politician, former Home Secretary and Leader of the House of Lords (1918 to 1999)
- William Whitelaw - Politician (1868 to 1946)
- Dave Whitelaw - Scottish football player (1909 to 1979)
- Sandy Whitelaw - Actor (1930 to 2015)
- Bobby Whitelaw - Scottish football player
- George Whitelaw - Football player (1937 to 1)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.