About the name Cameron

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If you like the name Cameron, find out the meaning, origin, nicknames, variations and other information to help you decide if you want to use this first name for your baby.

Name meaning, variations & etymology

Means “crooked nose”
Nickname of a Highland chieftain with a crooked nose
Also used as a surname
Abbreviated to Cam, Cammie, Cami

The text below is excerpted with permission from the book The Encyclopedia of American Last Names: Family Genealogy and Meanings for 1000 Surnames of Early European Settlers to the United States.

History of the name Cameron

If you accept the current theory of the origin of the name Cameron, you probably believe that the forebear who first had the name had a crooked nose. Cameron, we are told, is a name derived from a word that meant crooked nose (The Gaelic “Camshron”), and was therefore first taken as a nickname.

The tradition further has it that the Camerons are all descended from a younger son of the royal family of Denmark who was born in the year 404, and that he was called Cameron because he had a hooked nose. Just why a Danish prince would bear a Gaelic first name is hard to see.

The Camerons were, it is reasonable to believe, Scots or Caledonians of the ancient lineage, and the tradition that the family first came from Denmark and those who carried the name to Scotland were Danes who assisted at the restoration of King Fregues II in 404 A.D. is probably not founded in facts.

Whatever the early origin of the Camerons, it is a fact beyond dispute that members of the family were prominent among those who shared in the fortunes of the unfortunate Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne, and one of them, Donald Cameron, was a participant in the Battle of Culloden.

origin/Nationality

Celtic

Also check out these name groups

Boy names, Girl names, Names that start with C, Scottish baby boy names, Unisex names

baby Name length

7 letters (popular name length)

See related baby names

anglo-saxon, baby boy names, baby girl names, cameron, scottish, unisex

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