Taken from the book: "Book of Scots / Irish Family Names" by Robert Bell,

SCOTT

Scott is a very common surname in Ireland, and is particularly numerous

in Ulster. It derives ultimately from the Latin Scottus which,

confusingly, means 'Irishman'. After the Irish colonisation of that

country in the sixth century, 'Scotland' eventually became the English

name for the territory controlled by the Gaelic speaking descendants of

the settlers, more or less the Highland. In the course of time, by

extension, the name was applied to all of what we now know as Scotland.

'Scott' as a descriptive name was initially used for the Highlanders

but, like the name of the country, in the end came to refer to all

Scots. A Lowland Scottish family, based along the Borders, are in fact

the forbears of many Ulster bearers of the name. They were one of the

notorious 'riding clans', many of whose members settled in Fermanagh in

the seventeenth century after their power was broken by James II.

Johannes Scottus Eriugena (c180-877), the philosopher and theologian,

appears on the Irish £5 note. His work was not uncontroversial: De

Praedestinatione was condemned at the Council of Valence in 855 as

pultes Scottorum, 'Irish porridge', and his major work, De Divisione

Naturae, was repeatedly condemned and finally placed on the Papal Index

in 1685.