The name 'Scougall'
'Scougall' isn't a very common name, is it? You're probably looking at it and wondering how to pronounce it, or thinking that you haven't seen it very often (if at all), and maybe you're wondering where it came from. This is, of course, what this page is addressing.
Like the Scottish name 'Dougal' or 'McDougal', but with 'sc' instead of 'd'. It's similar to 'schoolgirl', as many schoolyard taunts can attest.
The short story is that it's from an area of Scotland, that is nowadays called Innerleithen. I can't remember exactly where it is, but I do remember that it's directly south of Glasgow. The one time my family went there in 1991, there weren't that many Scougalls in their phonebook, and we found my great-great-great-great-grandafather George Scougall's (died 1854) grave.
The name itself has been around in various forms for quite a long time; I've heard of a Philip de Scughale that lived as far back as 1204.
For a longer story, I have here part of a document written by my uncle, Ian R Scougall: Origins of the name Scougall.
Despite its rarity, the surname Scougall has spread to a few countries:
And it is of course still in Scotland as well.
What I have here isn't very comprehensive. Also, there's been a few emails from people since I first put this page up that I haven't incorporated into this page. Some of this can hopefully be abated by use of the following messageboard:
The idea being that instead of just emailing something to me and hoping I see it (risky) you can hop onto the board and post thoughts, comments, and questions that others, not just me, can see. I have no idea if this is going to be successful or not, but it's worth a try.
This page was last updated on the 4th of June, 2003