In Ireland common only in Ulster, Aiken
is of Scottish origin. It is the Scottish form of
the English name Atkin, which comes from Adkin, a pet
form of Adam. The name was very common in the
parish of Ballantrae in Ayrshire and many of our Aikens
may stem from there. There are many variant
spellings. It was recorded as being used
interchangeably with Eakins in Belfast, Ekin in counties
Derry and Donegal, Ekin in Co. Donegal and Egan in Co.
Down. Some of the Irish sept of O'Hagan (see
O'Hagan) may have further anglicised their name to Aiken.
In
Co. Antrim, where it is most popular, it was found to be
most concentrated in the area northwest of Ballymena in
the mid-nineteenth century.
Dr. Joseph Aiken published a contemporary account of
the Siege of Derry in verse entitled Londerias, or, a
narrative of the siege of Londonderry (1699).
GLOSSARY
Clan
From the Gaelic
clann which means literally 'children'.
Mac-
From the Gaelic
mac, meaning 'son'
O'
From the Gaelic
Ó, meaning 'grandson', 'grandchild' or
'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó,
meaning 'daughter' or 'descendant'
Plantation (Ulster)
The
redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight
of the Earls' in 1607. Only counties
Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and
Cavan were actually 'planted', portions of land
there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of
bawns.
Sept
A family group of
shared ancestry living in the same locality
Undertakers
Powerful English
or Scottish landowners who undertook the
plantation of British settlers on the lands they
were granted.
Gaelic
This word in
Ireland has no relation to Scotland. As a
noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as
an adjective to denote native Irish as opposed to
Norman or English origin.
Erenagh
From the Irish
Gaelic airchinneach, meaning 'hereditary steward
of church lands'. A family would hold the
ecclesiastical office and the right to the church
or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one time
being the erenagh.
