Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
PAITRICK, prop.n. Sc. form of Eng. Patrick. Comb. paitrick-name, in Sh. a person's surname according to the old Norse way of naming a man by adding -son, or a woman by adding -dattir, -dottir, -daughter, to the father's Christian name, so that e.g. Peter Johnson's son would be surnamed Peterson and his daughter Petersdottir. This system was traditionally though quite erroneously said to have been introduced by the rapacious Earl Patrick Stewart of Orkney (1590–1615), on the supposition that it made it more difficult for people to trace their ancestry and thus more easy to defraud them of their inherited property. Hist.
