Many words commonly used in America today have their origins in our Celtic roots. While the following three terms are associated todaywith the American South and southern culture, their origins are distinctly Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish), and date tothe mass immigration of Scottish Lowland and Ulster Presbyterians toAmerica during the 1700s.

HILLBILLY
The origin of this American nickname for mountain folk of Appalachia comes from Ulster. Ulster Scots (The often incorrectly labeled Scots-Irish) settlers in the hill-country ofAppalachia brought their traditional music with them to the new world, and many of their songs and ballads dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II of the Stuart family at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. William, Prince of Orange Supporters of King William were known as Orangemen and "Billy Boys"and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as "hill-billies".

It is interesting to note that a traditional song of the Glasgow Rangers football club today begins with the line, "Hurrah! Hurrah! We are the Billy Boys!" and shares its tune with the famous American Civil War song, "Marching Through Georgia".

REDNECKS and BLACKBEAKS
The origins of this term are Scottish and refer to supporters of theNational Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant,or "Covenanters", largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom would flee Scotland for Ulster (Northern Ireland) during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. The signing of the National Covenant, Greyfriar's Kirkyard, 1638

Many Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia; hence the term "Red neck", which became slang for a Scottish dissenter*. One Scottish immigrant, interviewed by the author, remembered a Presbyterian minister, one Dr. Coulter, in Glasgow in the 1940'swearing a red clerical collar -- is this symbolic of the "rednecks"?

Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially the South) were Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern descendants. One of the earliest examples of its use comes from 1830, when an author noted that "red-neck" was a "name bestowed upon the Presbyterians." It makes you wonder if the originators of the ever-present "redneck" joke are aware of the terms origins? *

Another term for Presbyterians in Ireland was a "Blackmouth or Blackbeak".Members of the Church of Ireland (Anglicans) used this as a slur, referring to the fact that one could tell a Presbyterian by the black stains around his mouth from eating blackberries while at secret, illegal Presbyterian Church services in the countryside.

CRACKER
Another Ulster-Scot term, a "cracker" was a person who talked and boasted, and "craic" is a term still used in Scotland and Ireland to describe "talking", chat or conversation in a social sense ("Lets go down to the pub and have a craic"; "what's the craic"). The term, first used to describe a southerner of Ulster-Scottish background, later became a nickname for any white southerner, especially those who were uneducated. And while not an exclusively Southern term, but rather referring in general to all Americans, the origins of this word are related tothe other three.

GRINGO

Often used in Latin America to refer to people from the United States, gringo also has a strong Ulster Scots connection. The term originates from the Mexican War (1846-1848), when American Soldiers would sing Robert Burns??? song ???Green Grow the Rashes, O!??? or ???Green grows the Laurel???, while serving in Mexico, thus inspiring the locals to refer to the Yankees as ???gringos???, or ???green-grows???.

The song Green Grows the Laurel refers to several periods in Scottish and Ulster-Scottish history; Jacobites might change the green laurel for the bonnets so blue of the exiled Stewart monarchs of Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellions of the late 1600s early1700s. Scottish Lowlanders and Ulster Presbyterians would change the green laurel of James II in 1690 for the Orange and Blue of William of Orange, and later on, many of these Ulstermen would immigrate to America, and thus change the green laurel for the red, white and blue.