Black Family Crest, Coat of Arms & Black Name Origin

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Origin of the Name Black

The ancient history of the name Black was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Variants of the name Black include Blacke, Blac, Blake and Blackie. This is a name of nickname origin meaning 'of dark complexion'. This name is often of Scottish descent spreading to Ireland, England and Wales in early times and is found in many mediaeval manuscripts throughout these countries. Members of the old family of Black of Wateridgemuir, Logiebuchan, in Scotland, have been Burgesses of Aberdeen for the last 450 years. In Ireland the name is connected with the three Scottish Clans of Lamont, MacGregor and MacLean and is very numerous in the Province of Ulster. Black in England often takes the form of Blake in early times and is found in the person of Hamo le Blake who is recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls' in the year 1273. A Margery Blak was recorded in the 'Close Rolls', in the reign of Edward II. In Ireland Black is also sometimes used as a variant of the names Duff and Kilduff as, when these names are rendered in Gaelic they have the Gaelic word 'dubh' within them, the translation of which is 'black'.