Seth History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Ireland
Scotland

Seth was first used as a surname among the descendants of the ancient Scottish people known as the Picts. It was a name for a person who shared some of the qualities attributed to a wolf. Seth is a nickname surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Nicknames form a broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, and can refer directly or indirectly to one's personality, physical attributes, mannerisms, or even their habits of dress. The surname Seth is derived from the Gaelic first name Sithech, which means wolf.

Early Origins of the Seth family

The surname Seth was first found in Perthshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Pheairt) former county in the present day Council Area of Perth and Kinross, located in central Scotland, where the family appears to have been firmly entrenched in the Eastern coastal regions well before 1000 AD.

While some claim that the Clan originally descended from a MacDuff, one of the ancient Earls of Fife, the first official mention in documents shows them to be present at the General Council held by King Malcolm at Forfar in 1061.

However, this ancient leadership was challenged by many other Clans Commyns (Cummings) who had leased the Shaw lands of Rothiemurchus.

Early History of the Seth family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Seth research. Another 369 words (26 lines of text) covering the years 1178, 1226, 1405, 1411, 1527, 1550, 1602, 1608, 1625, 1672, 1692, 1751, 1774, 1776, 1799, 1804, 1826, 1832, 1849, 1876 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Seth History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Seth Spelling Variations

Before the first dictionaries appeared in the last few hundred years, scribes spelled according to sound. spelling variations are common among Scottish names. Seth has been spelled Shaw, Shawe, Mac Ghille-Sheathanaich (Gaelic) and others.

Early Notables of the Seth family

Notable amongst the Clan at this time was Robert Shaw (died 1527), Scottish cluniac monk and prelate; William Schawe (1550-1602), Scottish architect, probably a younger son of Schaw of Sauchie; John Shawe or Shaw (1608-1672), an English puritan minister from Yorkshire...
Another 41 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Seth Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Seth Ranking

In the United States, the name Seth is the 10,567^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1

Migration of the Seth family to Ireland

Some of the Seth family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 123 words (9 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Seth migration to the United States +

In those unstable times, many had no choice but to leave their beloved homelands. Sickness and poverty hounded travelers to North America, but those who made it were welcomed with land and opportunity. These settlers gave the young nations of Canada and the United States a strong backbone as they stood up for their beliefs as United Empire Loyalists and in the American War of Independence. In this century, the ancestors of these brave Scots have begun to recover their illustrious heritage through Clan societies and other heritage organizations. Early passenger and immigration lists reveal many Scottish settlers bearing the name Seth:

Seth Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Jacob Seth, who landed in Maryland in 1666-1750 2
William Seth, who arrived in Maryland in 1669 2
Margaret Seth, who landed in Maryland in 1675 2

Seth migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Seth Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Mr. Benjamin Seth, English convict who was convicted in Middlesex, London, England for life, transported aboard the "Enchantress"on 6th April 1833, arriving in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Seth (post 1700) +

Waqar Ahmed Seth (1961-2020), Pakistani jurist, Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court 28 June 2018 to 2020
Marvin Seth Goodfriend (1950-2019), American economist and professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University
Andrew Seth Pringle -Pattison (1856-1931), born Andrew Seth, a Scottish philosopher from Edinburgh
Jonathan Seth Shurberg (1963-2017), American attorney, community advocate, and 2014 Democratic Party candidate for state delegate
Morgan Seth Earp (1851-1882), American deputy lawman, brother to Virgil and Wyatt Earp, wounded at the O.K. Coral gunfight, assassinated on March 18, 1882 while he was playing billiards
Michael Seth Maness (b. 1988), American Major League Baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals
Michael Seth Marler (b. 1981), American Arena football Placekicker
David Seth Doggett (1810-1880), American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Michael Seth McClung (b. 1981), American starting pitcher in the National Baseball League
Andrew Seth Upson (1835-1905), American Republican politician, Delegate to Republican National Convention from Connecticut, 1880; Member of Connecticut State Senate, 1880-82 4

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
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)
Convict Records Voyages to Australia (Retrieved 20th April 2022). https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/enchantress
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 17) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html