What is Your Family Tartan?

Are you Scottish and wanting to know if you have a family tartan, or unsure of your Scottish roots and curious to know what sept your family name may have been linked to? You’re in the right place as today’s blog covers our family tartan finder to help you source family & clan tartans.

Clan tartans have been around for centuries, many with rich history behind them. Tartan has been expanding and growing over the years, what once started a few simple patterned cloths is now a collection of over 7000 registered tartans in existence. Tartans break into many different design categories but this post looks at what family clan tartans are and how they came about. To find out how to find your name tartan with our family tartan finder keep on reading.

What Are Family Tartans / Clan Tartans?-

Family clan tartans are specific tartans that are named & associated after a particular clan, i.e. the Anderson tartan representing the Anderson clan & name. The roots of tartan can date far back to as old as 3000 B.C, tartan has a rich history with more registered tartans appearing over the years covering an array of names & families.

During the 15th-16th century tartan lead into clan affiliation, clans were divided by collated families, land owners & groups. Although not all clans had tensions with others, clans tended to dominate certain areas of clans and often there could be a few variations of clans with the same name but with different areas of land, members & cultural values. In medieval times, they acted almost like small kingdoms, each with its own army, law code, and alliances.

Clan tartans emerged as they were used as a form of identification for clan members, the clan members would usually all wear the same name tartan and this meant enemies could be easily spotted & identified. Clan tartans represent an allegiance and mutual support for their leader, with typically the clan chiefs name being the tartan they wore.

Some clans had linked connections of alliances and with the mixing of families some clan tartans could be interchangeable or have branch variations.

There can be multiple clan tartans under the same name as there may have been more than one clan with the same name, i.e. the MacDonald name was used across more than once clan but this did not mean they necessarily were connected.

Tartan itself started off fairly basic due to limited materials, dyes & lack of advanced machinery. As tartan evolved it was styled differently over time creating the development of the kilt. Highlanders used to wrap & pleat cloth around their body as a new take on the woollen cloak and became the great kilt or “Feileadh mor”.

This was the first iteration of the kilt, highlanders would take one big piece of cloth secured with a belt, wrapped across their front pleated around their back and remainder draped over their back to protect & keep them warm.

Learn About Clans / Septs-

Clans are usually led by a chief, recognized as the symbolic head of the clan, who traditionally had both social and legal authority over clan members. Clans and septs are both words used to describe different types of groups of Scots from the 17th century when clan culture emerged.

A clan is the general word for the whole large scale group of united individuals whom share the same name, leader or location.

A sept refers to smaller groups/families within a clan that may have a different name but follow under a clan or have an alliance with a clan.

We can see this in Clan MacDonald which was a well-known Scottish clan with various associated septs, that including surnames like MacEachern and MacRanald. While these septs are distinct families, they identify with Clan MacDonald, wear their tartan, and traditionally owed allegiance to the MacDonald chief.

Clans often have their own tartan, mottos & clan crests to symbolise their power & identity, this would usually be supported by the septs within the clan.

Septs may have allied with a major clan over time through marriage, political alliance, or area proximity, & adopting the clan’s identity and protection. Septs might have their own minor leaders but ultimately owe allegiance to the chief of the dominant clan.

Many septs joined larger clans for protection and mutual support. As smaller families or kin groups, they were vulnerable to rival clans or harsh conditions, so affiliating with a powerful clan offered security.

How Find Your Family Clan / Sept Tartan-

There are hundreds of clan tartans linking back to different families especially now more than ever, as people have started designing their own family tartans, variants and more. Meaning some names may have lots of tartans and some may not have any or have a privately owned tartan.

My Family Tartan Is Under A Different Name What Does This Mean?–

Many people aren’t aware of septs which are smaller name variants within a clan. Septs are surnames that while not being their own Clan, are associated with a Clan. For example, instances of the name Reid can be associated with Clan Robertson. Members of the Reid family should therefore would wear Robertson tartan. This is the case for many other names in many other clans.

Curious what yours may be? – Try out family tartan finder

let’s use our family tartan sept finder, you can locate this on our home page under the tartan finder tab, it should appear on the drop down menu as shown below.

Located on the left hand side of our home page, here you can search for a tartan by its name, by surname, universal tartans & browse our exclusive range.

As you can see below the family tartan finder will take you to the A-Z library of names you can filter this to help find your surname.

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Once you find your name, it will say which sept/district your name belonged to. By clicking the red text it will lead you to tartans under that clan name.

For example MacNab had 6 tartans under its name from 3 different mill suppliers.

By clicking on the red box on the left you can view information on your clan and the clan crest.

The clan crest differs clan to clan as they have different symbolism & mottos and a means of identification to other clan members.

You can shop all clan crest items for that particular name under the history & clan crest section, see the blue text to

We offer a wide range of clan crest accessories from Shoulder Plaid Brooches, Sgian Dubhs, Cufflinks, Flasks, Kilt Pins, Sporrans & Belt Buckles.

These make wonderful gifts & finishing touches to a kilt outfit and are a lovely nod to someone’s family name & ancestors.

What If I Don’t Have A Family / Clan Tartan?

Truth be told, not everyone has a clan/sept relation. There is thousands more Scots and families than there was 3/4 centuries ago. So its not uncommon to not have an exact clan connection, this doesn’t make anyone less Scottish or connected to Scottish history. For some names without a tartan there is yet to be a tartan designed for that family, the tartan register is constantly growing more and more with new tartans.

With modern technology many families & couples are commissioning tartan designs for their name or even for special occasions like weddings. Most people who don’t have a clan tartan will chose to wear a universal tartan that is generic to everyone or purely chose a tartan they like, there is no rules about what tartans someone can wear.

If an Anderson wants to wear a MacDonald tartan, its perfectly fine and normal and very common. Tartan is for everyone & designed to be shared.

If you are interested in designing your own tartan, here at Houston Kiltmakers. We are home to 2 of the best tartan designers in the industry. Ken & Ewan MacDonald the shop owners have designed tartans for generations for lots of couples, families, corporations & big name clients like Nasa.

Tartan design special weave is a great way to create your own tartan if you don’t have one or create your own variation of your family tartan. Many couples will design a tartan as a symbolism of their marriage and combining of families.

We hope this informational blog has been educational & interesting, you can find out more about highland wear & products on our website Kiltmakers.com & Search for your family name here.

For similar blogs you can read out history of the kilt blog here & where it began here & you can also browse all other topics here.

We would love to welcome you into our traditional highland wear store or you can also enquire to us at [email protected] or call us on 0141 889 4879.