Scottish Surnames of Clan Fraser – Origins, Tartans and Clan History

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If you carry the surname Fraser, Frasier, Frazier, or any of its many variants, you are connected to one of Scotland’s most storied and dramatic clan families. The Scottish surnames of Clan Fraser reach from the misty straths of Inverness-shire to the battlefields of Quebec, from the courtrooms of Ottawa to the commando beaches of Normandy. This is a clan whose history reads like a novel — treachery, heroism, exile, and ultimate redemption across five centuries of Scottish life. Here is everything you need to know about the origins, tartans, septs, and the remarkable people who carried the Fraser name across the world.

The Origins of the Fraser Name

The name Fraser is older than most people realise, and its origins are genuinely debated among historians and etymologists. The most widely accepted theory traces the name to Norman French — specifically to the family name de Freselière from the Anjou region of France. The earliest recorded forms of the name in Scotland, dating from the mid-12th century, appear as de Fresel, de Friselle, and de Freseliere. A family of this name in the Anjou region of France still exists today.

A second tradition — older and more romantic — connects the name to the Old French word fraise, meaning strawberry, and fraisier, meaning strawberry plant. According to this legend, a nobleman named Julius de Berry impressed Charles the Simple of France with a gift of strawberries, was knighted, and adopted strawberry flowers as his armorial bearings. Whether or not this legend is true, the Frasers’ coat of arms does indeed bear three silver strawberry flowers on a blue background — earning the clan the enduring Gaelic nickname na Friosalaich, the Strawberry Bearers. The heraldic term for this is “canting arms” — a visual pun on the family name — and it gave the Fraser family one of the most distinctive and immediately recognisable shields in all of Scottish heraldry.

In Gaelic, the clan is known collectively as na Friosalaich, and the chief of the Highland branch carries the ancient Gaelic title MacShimidh — meaning “Son of Simon” — a patronymic that has been passed down through the generations of Fraser of Lovat chiefs. It is one of the oldest continuously used Gaelic chiefly titles in Scotland. If your Scottish ancestry research leads you to a Simon, Sim, or Syme in the family tree, you may well be looking at a Fraser connection.

Scottish Surnames of Clan Fraser — Septs and Variants

Clan Fraser, like all great Scottish clans, incorporated a wide range of related and allied family names — known as septs — under its protection. If your surname appears in this list, your ancestors may have lived under Fraser protection in the Highlands or Lowlands of Scotland, or may have been part of the wider Fraser network across the generations.

It is worth noting that the name was famously difficult to spell consistently. When Scottish nobles signed the Ragman Roll — the document of submission to Edward I of England in 1296 — members of the Fraser family signed the name in at least seven different ways in the same document. If your ancestors’ records show multiple spellings of the same surname across generations, this is entirely normal and reflects the phonetic flexibility of pre-standardised spelling.

The Two Great Branches of Clan Fraser

Most people who research their Fraser heritage are surprised to discover that there are two officially recognised branches of Clan Fraser, each with their own chief, tartan traditions, and ancestral territory.

Clan Fraser of Lovat — The Highland Branch

This is the branch most people associate with “Clan Fraser.” Based in Inverness-shire in the central Highlands, their traditional heartland encompasses the Aird, Stratherick, Strathfarrar, and the Beauly Firth. Their chief holds the title Lord Lovat and carries the ancient Gaelic designation MacShimidh. Their seat is Beaufort Castle, near the village of Beauly, 13 miles west of Inverness. The Highland Frasers were deeply involved in the Jacobite risings, the clan wars of the 16th century, and the Highland Clearances that followed Culloden.

Clan Fraser of Philorth — The Lowland Branch (Lords Saltoun)

The Lowland branch settled in Aberdeenshire, where they founded the town of Fraserburgh — a name that preserves their presence to this day. The current chief is Lady Saltoun, who holds the title recognised by the Lord Lyon as Chief of the Name and Arms of Fraser. Their seat is Cairnbulg Castle near Fraserburgh. The Lowland Frasers took no part in the Jacobite risings and regarded themselves as a separate political entity from the Highland clan — though they share the same ultimate ancestry.

Castle Fraser (near Kemnay, Aberdeenshire) — now managed by the National Trust for Scotland — was built by yet another Fraser family, the lairds of Muchalls-in-Mar, and is one of the finest tower houses in Scotland. It is not formally connected to either chiefly line but is an outstanding example of how deeply the Fraser name was embedded across the Scottish countryside.

The Fraser Clan Tartans

Fraser Dress Tartan

The Fraser dress tartan is one of the most striking in all of Scottish heraldry — a bold pattern of deep red, navy blue, and forest green, with thinner accent lines of white running through the field. The red is dominant, giving the tartan a vivid, confident character that reflects the clan’s martial history. The pattern was recorded in the Vestiarium Scoticum and is the tartan you will see worn at Highland games, clan gatherings, and formal occasions. Many Fraser descendants in the United States, Canada, and Australia wear this tartan as a direct statement of ancestral pride.

Fraser Hunting Tartan

The hunting tartan replaces the conspicuous red of the dress tartan with earthy greens and browns — designed for practical outdoor use in the Highland glens and woodland. Several variants exist, including the Ancient, Weathered, and Modern versions, which differ primarily in the saturation of their colours. The Ancient variants use softer, more muted tones that reflect the natural vegetable dyes used before the industrial era. If you are ordering a kilt or a length of Fraser tartan today, you will be asked to choose between these variants — each connects you to the same clan heritage, expressed through a slightly different lens of history.

The Clan Motto — Je Suis Prest

The motto of Clan Fraser of Lovat is the Old French phrase Je suis prest — meaning “I am ready.” It appears on the clan crest badge below a stag’s head with full antlers (or “attires” in heraldic language). It is a motto of quiet confidence — not boastful, not threatening, simply prepared. Given the number of battles, sieges, and reverses the Frasers endured over the centuries, it reads with a certain dark humour. The clan was always ready. Whether fate rewarded that readiness is another matter.

Clan Fraser in Scottish History

Sir Simon Fraser and the Wars of Independence

The Frasers were among William Wallace’s closest supporters during Scotland’s Wars of Independence. Sir Simon Fraser (died 1306) defeated three English armies in a single engagement at the Battle of Roslin in 1302 — one of the most extraordinary Scottish victories of that era, achieved against overwhelming numerical odds. He was later captured by Edward I and executed with great cruelty, sharing the fate of many who dared resist English domination. A further connection to Scotland’s founding mythology came when Sir Alexander Fraser of Touchfraser fought at Bannockburn in 1314, married Mary Bruce, the sister of Robert the Bruce, and served as Chamberlain of Scotland — one of the three great offices of the kingdom. The Frasers were, quite literally, woven into the royal fabric of Scotland.

The Battle of the Shirts, 1544

On a hot summer day in July 1544, one of the most savage clan battles in Highland history was fought on the marshy ground north of Loch Lochy. Known in Gaelic as Blàr na Léine — the Battle of the Shirts — the conflict pitted the Frasers against the MacDonalds of Clanranald and their Cameron allies in a dispute over the Clanranald chieftainship. The summer heat was so intense that the men stripped off their heavy plaids and chainmail and fought in their linen shirts alone — which gave the battle its name. The casualties were catastrophic. Lord Lovat, his eldest son, and most of their men were killed. Tradition holds that only five Frasers survived. The losses were so severe that the clan’s recovery depended on the pregnant wives left at home. You can read more about how the MacDonald clan’s story intertwined with the Frasers across these turbulent centuries.

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat — The Last Beheading in Britain

No figure in Fraser history is more dramatic — or more morally complex — than Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, known to his contemporaries as “The Fox.” He spent decades playing both sides of the Jacobite conflict with extraordinary cynicism, shifting his allegiances whenever his personal interests demanded. During the 1745 Jacobite rising, he publicly supported the government while secretly sending his son with Fraser men to join Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army at Culloden.

At the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, around 500 Fraser clansmen fought in the front line of the Jacobite army. Up to 250 were killed. You can visit their grave marker on Culloden Moor today — a simple stone that carries more weight than most monuments in Scotland. The Clan Fraser stone at Culloden stands as a reminder of what ordinary clansmen sacrificed for a cause their chief had manipulated from a safe distance. The National Trust for Scotland manages the battlefield and it is one of the most affecting heritage sites in the country — essential for anyone planning a Scottish heritage trip.

Lovat himself was captured, tried for high treason, and sentenced to death. On 9 April 1747, he became the last person to be publicly beheaded in Britain, executed on Tower Hill in London. A grandstand erected for the spectators collapsed and killed nine people. Lovat reportedly laughed. His last recorded words included a Latin quotation from Horace: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori — “It is sweet and seemly to die for one’s country.” He was buried in St Peter ad Vincula, the chapel within the Tower of London. The forfeiture of the Lovat estates that followed broke the clan’s traditional power structure and directly accelerated the conditions that led to the Highland Clearances.

The 78th Fraser Highlanders — From Culloden to Quebec

History’s great ironies rarely come sharper than this. Within a decade of Culloden — where Fraser men had died fighting against the British Crown — the British government authorised a Fraser to raise a Highland regiment in their name. Simon Fraser (1726–1782), son of the executed 11th Lord Lovat, had himself been a fugitive after Culloden but received a royal pardon in 1750. In 1757 he was given authority to raise the 78th Fraser Highlanders, drawing heavily on men from the clan’s Inverness-shire heartland.

The regiment fought with extraordinary distinction in North America during the Seven Years’ War. At the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec on 13 September 1759, the 78th Highlanders formed the largest single unit in General Wolfe’s battle line. They made what historians credit as the last successful Highland charge in British military history as the French lines broke. When the regiment was disbanded in Canada in 1763, 158 Fraser veterans accepted land grants and settled along the St. Lawrence River — planting the seeds of a Scots community in Quebec whose descendants are still found there today. Their story connects directly to the profound Scottish legacy in Canada that endures to this day.

Lord Lovat’s Piper on D-Day — June 1944

Two centuries after Culloden, a Fraser chief led Scottish soldiers onto another beach in an act of extraordinary courage. Brigadier Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat — known to his clan as “Shimi” — commanded the 1st Special Service Brigade at Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. In one of the most iconic acts of the entire Normandy campaign, Lovat ordered his personal piper, Private Bill Millin, to play the commandos ashore through enemy fire. When Millin cited War Office regulations prohibiting battlefield piping, Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.” Millin played on. German snipers reportedly declined to shoot him, convinced that anyone playing bagpipes under fire must be insane.

Lovat’s commandos reached Pegasus Bridge — the critical objective held by the 6th Airborne Division — exactly on schedule, with Millin piping them across the bridge. Lovat was seriously wounded six days later at Bréville and took no further active part in the war. Bill Millin’s bagpipes are preserved today at the National War Museum in Edinburgh. He played a lament at Lord Lovat’s funeral in 1995.

The Highland Clearances and the Fraser Diaspora

The defeat at Culloden and the forfeiture of the Lovat estates did not merely damage Clan Fraser — it dismantled the entire social structure that had sustained Highland life for centuries. The principle of dùthchas — the ancient belief that clan members held an inalienable right to rent land in their ancestral territory — had never been recognised in Scots law. Once Jacobite estates were forfeited and then gradually returned to commercial landlords, that protection was gone. The Highland Clearances that followed, roughly between 1750 and 1860, drove thousands of Fraser clansmen and women from their ancestral glens to make way for the more profitable sheep farming that English and Lowland capital demanded.

The human cost was enormous. Families who had farmed the Aird, Stratherrick, and Strathfarrar for generations were told to go — to the coast, to the industrial cities, or to ships bound for Canada, Australia, and the emerging settlements of New Zealand. The Highland Clearances remain one of the most painful chapters in Scottish history, and for the Scottish diaspora, they are not distant history — they are the event that created their family’s presence on the other side of the world.

Clan Fraser Around the World

Canada and Nova Scotia

The name “Nova Scotia” means “New Scotland” in Latin, and the province was one of the primary destinations for Fraser emigrants from the late 18th century onward. Frasers settled across Cape Breton, Pictou County, Prince Edward Island, and Glengarry County in Ontario, carrying their Gaelic language and clan identity with them. In some communities, Gaelic was still spoken well into the 20th century. The explorer Simon Fraser (1776–1862), born to Loyalist parents of Highland descent in what is now upstate New York, gave his name to the Fraser River in British Columbia — one of Canada’s great waterways. Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, is also named in his honour.

Australia and New Zealand

The Highland and Island Emigration Society assisted thousands of Highlanders to emigrate to Australia in the 1850s. Today, Scottish-descended Australians number approximately 2.2 million, and the surname Frasier and its variants appear throughout Australian records from the colonial period to the present. Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015), who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, was of Scottish descent — one of the most prominent Fraser figures in modern political history. In New Zealand, a community of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders from Cape Breton settled the Waipu area of Northland in the late 1840s — carrying their Scottish identity around the world twice before finally making landfall in the Pacific.

The United States

The surname Frazier — the most common American phonetic variant of Fraser — is found in enormous numbers across the United States, particularly in the South and Appalachian regions settled by Scots-Irish and Scottish emigrants from the 18th century onward. Many of these families are descended from Highland and Lowland Scots who arrived in America before, during, and after the Jacobite period. If you carry the Frazier spelling in an American family tree, the Scottish connection is very likely — and tracing your Scottish ancestry through the ScotlandsPeople records in Edinburgh can often confirm the link within a few generations.

And yes — the fictional Dr. Frasier Crane of the American sitcom Frasier carries a variant spelling of the clan name. It is a small but pleasing connection between a modern television character and one of Scotland’s great ancestral families. You can add it to the list of surprising places the Fraser name has turned up across the centuries.

Where to Visit Clan Fraser Country Today

If you are planning a Scottish heritage trip, Clan Fraser territory offers some of the most emotionally resonant sites in the country.

Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

Sixteen miles west of Aberdeen, Castle Fraser is one of the grandest and most elaborate tower houses in Scotland — a five-storey Z-plan castle begun in 1575 and completed in 1636. It was home to the Fraser family for over 400 years before being gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1976. Highlights include the Great Hall, a hidden “Laird’s Lug” listening chamber above the hall where the laird could eavesdrop on guests, family portraits including a Raeburn, a beautiful walled garden, and woodland walks where red squirrels and roe deer are regularly spotted. For Scottish diaspora visitors, standing in the Great Hall of a castle that bore your ancestor’s name for four centuries is an experience that no amount of online genealogy can replicate.

Beaufort Castle and Beauly, Inverness-shire

The village of Beauly — from the French beau lieu, beautiful place — sits 13 miles west of Inverness at the heart of traditional Fraser of Lovat country. Beauly Priory, a romantic ruin in the town centre, was founded around 1230 by the Bisset family — whose lands later passed to the Frasers. It stands as a tangible connection to the deep roots of Fraser power in the region. Beaufort Castle itself, the traditional seat of the Lords Lovat built in 1880 on the site of the ancient Castle Dounie, is privately owned and not open to the public, but the surrounding estate landscape and the approach through the Beauly Firth gives a clear sense of the natural grandeur that defined the Frasers’ Highland world. The ruins of the original Castle Dounie, destroyed by Cumberland’s forces after Culloden, still stand beside the later mansion.

Culloden Battlefield

Five miles east of Inverness, Culloden Battlefield is managed by the National Trust for Scotland and is one of the most moving heritage sites in the British Isles. The Clan Fraser grave marker stands on the field where up to 250 Fraser clansmen were buried after the Battle of 16 April 1746. The NTS Visitor Centre offers an outstanding audiovisual presentation, extensive Jacobite exhibition material, and guided battlefield tours in summer. For anyone with Fraser ancestry — or indeed for any descendant of the wider Scottish clan families who were present at Culloden — this is essential ground to walk. No photograph, no book, and no documentary prepares you for the silence of the moor and the sight of the clan stones.

Clan Fraser Society Resources

The Clan Fraser Society of Scotland and the UK at fraserclan.net maintains an extensive septs list, clan history, membership, and a regular newsletter. The Clan Fraser of Lovat organisation at clanfraser.org focuses specifically on the Highland branch and offers detailed historical resources, genealogy guides, and a timeline of clan events. If you have identified a Fraser line in your family tree, connecting with these societies can open doors to records, fellow researchers, and organised clan events that would be impossible to find independently.

Frequently Asked Questions About Clan Fraser

What does the surname Fraser mean?

The most widely accepted origin traces the name to the Norman French de Freselière, a family from the Anjou region of France who settled in Scotland in the 12th century. A popular folk tradition connects it to the Old French word fraise (strawberry), reflected in the clan’s armorial bearings of three silver strawberry flowers. In Gaelic, the clan is known as na Friosalaich, the Strawberry Bearers. There is also a minority theory linking the name to Old French fresel, meaning ribbon or braid. The name’s exact origin remains debated, but all theories point to early medieval French roots.

What is the clan motto of Clan Fraser?

The motto of Clan Fraser of Lovat is Je suis prest, Old French for “I am ready.” It appears on the clan crest badge, below a stag’s head with antlers. The Frasers of Philorth (Lords Saltoun, the Lowland branch) use a different motto: “All My Hope Is In God.” For most people researching their Highland Fraser heritage, Je suis prest is the motto they will encounter in clan records, crest badges, and society materials.

Who is the current chief of Clan Fraser?

The situation is slightly unusual in that both branches have recognised chiefs. Marjorie Flora Fraser, 21st Lady Saltoun, is recognised by the Lord Lyon as Chief of the Name and Arms of Fraser (the Lowland branch, seated at Cairnbulg Castle, Aberdeenshire). The Highland branch is led by Simon Fraser, 16th Lord Lovat, 25th Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat, based at Beaufort Castle near Beauly, Inverness-shire. His Gaelic title is MacShimidh. The practical consensus among clan historians is that Lady Saltoun leads the senior name-and-arms line, while Lord Lovat remains chief of the Highland clan proper.

Is Frazier the same as Fraser?

Yes — Frazier, Frasier, Frazer, and Frisell are all variants of the same name, originating from the same Norman French family that settled in Scotland in the 12th century. American records in particular show a wide variety of spellings, with Frazier being particularly common in the South and Appalachia. At the time of the Ragman Roll in 1296, members of the Fraser family signed the same document in at least seven different spellings. If you carry any of these variants, your ancestry research should look for all of them in the records.

What happened to Clan Fraser at Culloden?

Approximately 500 Fraser clansmen fought in the front line of the Jacobite army at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746. Up to 250 were killed and buried on the battlefield, where their grave marker still stands today. The battle and the subsequent forfeiture of the Lovat estates devastated the clan’s power structure, accelerating the social collapse that led to the Highland Clearances. The 11th Lord Lovat — who had manipulated both sides of the Jacobite conflict for personal gain — was captured and became the last person to be publicly beheaded in Britain, on 9 April 1747. For many Fraser families, the aftermath of Culloden was the event that put their ancestors on emigrant ships to Canada, America, Australia, and New Zealand.

How do I find my Fraser clan records?

The best starting point is ScotlandsPeople, the national genealogy database held by the National Records of Scotland. It holds Old Parish Records (births, marriages, deaths from before 1855), statutory registers (from 1855), and census records. You can search by surname and variant spellings. For Fraser of Lovat connections specifically, the archives in Inverness (Highland Archive Centre) hold extensive estate and local records. The Clan Fraser societies — fraserclan.net and clanfraser.org — can also connect you with specialist researchers and published genealogies. Read our full guide to tracing your Scottish ancestry for a step-by-step approach to the records.

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