Re: Aikins origin of name
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In reply to:
Aikins origin of name
5/23/00
Hi George,
A number of people have written to me and
asked that I post here. I am the person who
did the original research. Firstly, can I
say that I am a little annoyed that the
research I conducted seems to have been
used by some others for the purpose of attacking Steven Akins political views. This
was not the purpose of the original research
and Steven Akins politics is a quite seperate
matter.
It purpose was simply an attempt to validate
or otherwise, a claim didn't seem to hang
together - namely the origin of the name
Akin.
Prof. Black's book on Scottish surnames lists
it as simply a spelling variation of the
far more common Aiken. Steven Akin provided a
book on SCottish surnames in America which
claimed that it came from the Kyleakin area.
I'm afraid the latter is completely wrong as
there never has been an area known as Akin
on Skye. The area where Kyleakin now stands
was known as Strathvardeil. The original
name of the castle was Findanus and the current ruin dates from the late 15th/early
16thC.
Why do these dates matter? Steven Akins claims that the earliest refernce in record
to someone by the name Akin or a variant of,
- one John of Akyne - indicates the origin of
the individual as being Akyne. The date is 1404. There was no Akyne or Akin on Skye at
that date and Steven Akin has failed to
present any evidence to support his claim.
Black dismisses John of Akyne as an error
and gives Bain as his primary source. Steven
Akin does not appear to have read Black's primary source and chastises him for failing
to spot the area of Akin on a map. Aside from
the fact that Akyne did not exist on a map of
Skye, that it not the reason Black claims that the 'of' is an error. His reasons are related to the content of Bain.
CUrrently I am trying to track down a copy of Bain as well as the origin of the naming of
thye Kyle itself. We know now that in the
14thC - when this John of Akyne would be
growing up in wherever Akyne was and assuming that to be his correct name - That there was
no Kyleakin and no Dunakin Castle.
As far as your comments on reading stuff on
the Internet, there used to be an ironic
adage for information found on the internet
- "I read it on the net - it must be true!"
It's for this reason that, like Black, I give
my primary sources.
Akin is listed by most geneology books as a
spelling variant of Aiken. Aiken is one of
the 12 most common surnames in Scotland. It
is a lowland name and has no clan of its own
per se. It is associated, however, with clan
Gordon.
This is very much a one off article as I
don't normally inhabit these forums, but if anyone wishes to follow the exchanges, they
can be found in the USenet newsgroup
soc.culture.scottish
Hope this helps
tnnurse
More Replies:
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another possibility
2/07/01