Frequency: (5834)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Scottish: habitational name from Abernethy in southeastern Perthshire. The place name is of Pictish origin, meaning ‘mouth of the river Nethy’.
FOREBEARS: This was one of the surnames of the Scots who settled in northern Ireland during the ‘plantation’ in the 17th century, and it was brought to the U.S. as the name of a Southern plantation owner (in a different sense of the word ‘plantation’).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
