Saturday, June 8, 2013

Surname Saturday - The Scotland Connection


The name Clan Iver can be found in Scottish records as far back as the early 1100s.  The families of the Lewis and Skye branch emigrated from Scotland to North Carolina and settled in Chatham and Moore (now Lee) counties.

My maternal great grandfather, Evander Wilder McIver descended from Clan Iver branch of Skye.  Evander's grandfather, John "Piper John" McIver, arrived in North Carolina between 1780 and 1815. 


The first letters of the surname, "Mc" mean "son of."  From An Account of Clan-Iver, written by Rev. Peter-Colin Campbell in 1873, we learn the following about Iver:
Of Iver, the progenitor of the race which bears his name, nothing is known, nor can it be determined whether he was the grandfather of Dovenald, or whether the patronymic by which Dovenald is distinguished was derived from a more remote ancestor.  The Iver Crom, to whom the traditions of Argyllshire refer, and who is famed as the "Conqueror of Cowal," was probably the son of Dovenald.  He must have been posterior by a least three generations to the ancestor who gave his name to the Clan. The name Iver, which is very ancient and frequent in Scandinavian history, is sometimes used there interchangeably with Ingvar, of which we may consequently infer it to be an abbreviation.  The old spelling is almost invariably Ivar.

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