Documents

Origin of the name Cardno

Several different stories about the origin of the Cardno family name have been put forward. According to J.M.A. Wood, who researched the family in the 1920s, many members of the family believed their ancestors to be of foreign extraction. He wrote, “So strong is this tradition in the family today that to suggest any other origin is at once tabooed.”

In one version, Wood noted, the family are “of French extraction having accompanied the Fraser family from France at the time of the Norman conquest, and that when the Frasers settled in Philorth they too settled in the district and gave their name to the lands of Cardno.”

Alternatively, when Lord Saltoun fighting the Royalist cause at the battle of Worcester fell wounded in 1651, he was dragged from the battlefield by a French mercenary, named Cardno. In gratitude for saving him, Lord Saltoun brought the mercenary back with him to Fraserburgh.

A third story gives the family a Spanish origin, arriving in Aberdeenshire at the time of the Spanish Armada when a seaman, probably called 'Cardino', was shipwrecked near Cairnbulg and then settled in the district.

Other stories give the name an Italian origin. In one, “three brothers of the name during a religious persecution in Italy had to fly their fatherland and sought refuge in Scotland and having found favour with the then Lord Saltoun were settled on farms on his lordship's lands.” Another version says it was an Italian marble merchant trading with the Fraserburgh area who liked the surrounding countryside and stayed.

The Scottish family name of Cardno, however, has its origins in a placename (G.F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland, New York, 1946, p. 133). The lands of Cardno, including Wester Cardno, Mains of Cardno, Ord of Cardno and Easter Cardno, lie to the south-west of the town of Fraserburgh. The placename comes from the Gaelic carden, a thicket, with the suffix –ach, meaning copse place (W.F.H. Nicolaison, Scottish Place-Names, London, 1976, p. 159; W.J. Watson, The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, Edinburgh,1926, p.353).