Lochhead

Recorded as Lochhead, Lochead, Loffhead, Loachhead, and the Irish Lougheid, Loughhead, and Lougheed, this is a surname of Scottish origins. It is topographical for a person who was resident by a lake or a headland. The component elements of the name are the pre 7th century Old Gaelic word "loch" meaning a lake or pool, plus the Old English "heafod", meaning head, but used in a transferred sense to describe either a headland or the upper end of a loch. The earliest form of the surname was recorded towards the end of the 13th Century, (see below), whilst other recordings taken from surviving rolls and registers include James Lochheid who was a burgess and guild-brother in the city of Glasgow in 1626, whilst on November 21st 1654 David Lochhead and Jeane Symsoun were married in the parish of Edinburgh parish. David Loughheid was a witness at the church of St John, the Evagelist, Dublin, Ireland, on July 7th 1691, whilst on April 26th 1742 Elizabeth Loughhead, was christened at Flockton, in the county of Yorkshire, and on May 23rd 1861 Mary Ann Loughhead and John Groome were married in Manchester Cathedral Lancashire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gilbert de Lakenheued. This was dated 1296, in the "Records of Lanarkshire", Scotland, during the reign of John Balliol of Scotland, 1292 - 1296. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.