Scottish history reveals Aikenhead was first used as a surname by the Strathclyde-Briton people. It was a name for someone who lived in a barony in Lanarkshire where one of the first records was dates to 1372, when Robert II granted the lands of "Akynheuide" in Lanark to John de Maxwell in 1372. Convallus de Akinhead was recorded as witness to another land grant in the same year. [1]
The surname Aikenhead was first found in Lanarkshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Lannraig) at the barony of Aikenhead in the central Strathclyde region of Scotland, now divided into the Council Areas of North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and the City of Glasgow. One of the first official references to the family was in 1296 when Gilbert de L'Akenheued of Lanark rendered homage to King Edward I of England. [1]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Aikenhead research. Another 218 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 1296, 1376, 1444, 1489, 1676, 1697, 1673, 1699, 1676 and 1697 are included under the topic Early Aikenhead History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
It is only in the last few hundred years that rules have developed and the process of spelling according to sound has been abandoned. Scottish names from before that time tend to appear under many different spelling variations. Aikenhead has been spelled Aikenhead, Akenhead, Akynhead, Akynheued, Aikkenhead, Achenhead and many more.
Notable amongst the family at this time was Thomas Aikenhead (c.1676-1697), a Scottish student from Edinburgh who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy; he was the last person in Britain to be executed for that charge. He was the son of an apothecary at Edinburgh and was described as 'not vicious and extremely studious.' "His religious opinions became unsettled by the perusal of 'some atheistical writers,'...
Another 73 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Aikenhead Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Unwelcome in their beloved homeland, many Scots sailed for the colonies of North America. There, they found land and freedom, and even the opportunity to make a new nation in the American War of Independence. These Scottish settlers played essential roles in the founding of the United States, and the shaping of contemporary North America. Among them: Elizabeth Achenhed who settled in Jamaica in 1774.