Origin of the name Levack

[Alec Levack]

My quest is this: to find out the origin of my surname,

[Alec Levack]

Apologies for my mistake on my original mail which I entitled "Mr" - It should have been titled as above.

[Kyle2 MacLea]

Interesting question!

[Andrew Lancaster4]

My first reply seems to have been lost in the system somewhere, but here I go again. I am very interested in this. My own family of Livingstones sometimes seems to have had their name spelt Levidge or Levich, and for a while I did consider the Caithness Levachs as possible relatives. However I never found any sign of any connection to Livingstones or Appin. So I would very much like to hear what connections you found. What's more the two names, though spelt similarly, seemed to have been differently pronounced - your ch alternating with ck and my ch alternating with tch and dge. The Livingston/Livitch family was in Perthshire and Angus, but DNA seems to show a strong connection to McClays and a MacLane, so they may have moved from the west some centuries ago. Here is a webpage describing what my thoughts on some of this: http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Livingstone.htm I would very much like to hear more, and I hope you can get some Levack or Levachs into the DNA project, which is here: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/liv ... lea%5Fdna/ http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Discus ... Maclea.htm ...or at least please feel free to join yourself. You never know what links it might show. Best Regards Andrew Lancaster

[Rob Livingston2]

You might consider that "-ach" is a Gaelic suffix that serves to attach one thing to another, much like the German suffix "-er" and the English suffix "-ian".  In German, a person from Berlin is a "Berlin-er".  In English, a person from Boston is a "Boston-ian".  In Gaelic, a person from Leamhain (Lennox) is a "Lemhain-ach".  This works for proper names as well.  A MacGregor might be known as a "MacGriogor-ach" - one identifed as attached or affiliated with the MacGregor Clan.  So it's very possible that "Levack" is a person affiliated with another person, place or thing known as "Lev" (the MacLeavis?).  "-ich" is often a corruption of "-ach".

[Andrew Lancaster4]

In terms of pronunciation, is that the "loch" -ach or that "watch" -ach?

[Rob Livingston2]

It is like guttoral German "ach", as in "Bach" and the German "Ich".

[Alec Levack]

Thanks for the interest. I've grown up used to the "ach" or "ack" used in conversation, even in non-formal dialogue. For instance, we as children nick-named people from Tore, (a nearby village), "Tore-acks". I've heard the theory put forward by my father's sister on the Levack and she offered the translation of of the Lev part as maybe coming from the Gaelic (phonetically) Lave - to read. Thereby giving "reader". This was just pure speculation however. With the unsubstantiated but consistent association with the Livingstons however, I think that this theory is a possiblity. The first Levack reference in Caithness history is in the 1600s. Caithness then was a Gaelic speaking area but with a consistent non-Gaelic speaking population around the Wick area where a form of Scots was and still is spoken. In this area the Norse influence on Language is demonstrated by the place names - starting with Wick (word for harbour or bay in Norwegian). Name spelling changes in this area, at a time when few could read or write and spelling not definitive, (especially for anglicised Gaelic), could happen easily. I think my best advice would be to start searching Caithness local history for reference to Livingston or (Mac)Lea refugees in the 1600s! Regards, Alec

[Andrew Lancaster4]

Your information about the -ack ending is very interesting. Concerning my own Livingstones from Angus they seem to have sometimes been called Levitch or Levidge. Is there any suffix which would make sense of that? The idea of a connection to the word for a reader has been proposed before I think. One place it was proposed was in the account given of the Maclea name by a Perthshire clergyman in the 18th century. The form he suggested actually went soemthing like leavensitdh? (I thought from memory that it meant scripture reader.) Could that ending have been pronounced -idge or -itch do you think? Regards Andrew

[Andrew Lancaster4]

See: http://www.macleay.cncfamily.com/account_of_mclea.htm I have heard that the McLea's possest Strathchonnen in the North and that they are always as yet in possession of it, and that the whole of that Strath are for the most part McLea''s, both man and wife, or either the man or the wife, and that the McLea to whom Stratchonnen belonged, died without heirs male and had one only daughter, and who being heiress of Stratchonnen [sic] and that one of the Earls of Seaforth married this heiress, and that Stratchonnen [sic] now belongs to the Earl of Seaforth who, since that time, keeps the McLea''s in their former possession of Stratchonnen, who generally at this time call themselves McKenzies, tho'' they own and acknowledge themselves to be originally McLeas.