Show ContentsHoustoun History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The Dalriadan clans of ancient Scotland spawned the ancestors of the Houstoun family. Their name comes from the medieval Scottish given name Hugh. Houstoun is a patronymic surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. In general, patronyms were derived from either the first name of the father of the bearer, or from the names of famous religious and secular figures. By and large, surnames descending from one's father's name were the most common. The surname also came from the place called Houston, near Glasgow. In Old English, the name Houston, meant the settlement belonging to Hugh. 1

Early Origins of the Houstoun family

The surname Houstoun was first found in Renfrewshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Rinn Friù), a historic county of Scotland, today encompassing the Council Areas of Renfrew, East Renfrewshire, and Iverclyde, in the Strathclyde region of southwestern Scotland, where they were descended from a Scottish knight, Hugh de Paduinan, who in 1165 founded the town of Houston in that shire.

"The ancient family of Houston originally bore the name of Paduinan, from a place of that name in Lanarkshire. In the reign of Malcolm IV Baldwin de Bigre gave the lands of Kilpeter to Hugh de Paduinan, who appears as a witness to the foundation charter of the Abbey of Paisley between 1165-1173." 2

Early History of the Houstoun family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Houstoun research. Another 323 words (23 lines of text) covering the years 1296, 1341, 1406, 1415, 1435, 1460, 1525, 1527, 1550, 1601, 1605, 1650, 1662, 1688, 1696, 1730 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Houstoun History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Houstoun Spelling Variations

The medieval practice of spelling according to sound and repeated translation between Gaelic and English created many spelling variations of the same name. Houstoun has been recorded as Houston, Houstown, Huston, Hueston, Hughston, Hughstone, Houstone, Houstowne, Houstoun, Huestoun, Huestown, Huestowne, Hughstoun, Hughstown, Hughstowne, MacHouston, MacHuston, MacCuiston, McCuiston and many more.

Early Notables of the Houstoun family

Notable amongst the family at this time was

  • Sir Ludovick (or Louis) Houstoun of that Ilk (d.1662); Sir Patrick Houstoun of that Ilk, 1st Baronet, (d.1696); Sir John Houstoun of that Ilk, 2nd Baronet, Member of Parliament for Renfrewshire; and S...

Ireland Migration of the Houstoun family to Ireland

Some of the Houstoun family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 101 words (7 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Houstoun migration to the United States +

Descendents of Dalriadan-Scottish families still populate many communities across North America. They are particularly common in Canada, since many went north as United Empire Loyalists at the time of the American War of Independence. Much later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the highland games and Clan societies that now dot North America sprang up, allowing many Scots to recover their lost national heritage. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Houstoun, or a variant listed above:

Houstoun Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • Sir Patrick Houstoun, who landed in Georgia in 1731 3
  • Robert Houstoun, who arrived in Georgia in 1734 3
  • James Houstoun, who arrived in Georgia in 1734 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Houstoun (post 1700) +

  • Ms. Gayle Houstoun M.B.E., British Manager for National Crime Agency, was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire on 29th December 2018 for services to Preventing Organised Crime and for voluntary service 4
  • Prime Minister Sir George Houstoun Reid (1845-1918), Australian politician and statesman, Prime Minister for ten months in 1904/1905


  1. Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
  2. Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
  3. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  4. "Birthday and New Year Honours Lists (1940 to 2019)." Issue 62507, 28 December 2018 | London Gazette, The Gazette, Dec. 2018, www.thegazette.co.uk/honours-lists


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