For a family with a name so commonplace that it can be found in phone books from Stockholm to Auckland and Wisconsin to Warsaw, they have an elusive past and appear to have kept a low profile during times of war and struggle.  Anderson is ninth in frequency of Scottish family surnames.

Most Andersons south of Aberdeen simply began to name themselves after Saint Andrew the patron saint of their country.  In the north, they followed the tradition of taking the clan Chief's name and became 'son of Andrew.'  In common with Scandanavian ways, the family tended to be footloose and to rely on first names.  An icelandic phone book today, for example, lists people not by their last name, but my their first name.

While arms were awarded to 'Anderson of that Ilk' by the Lord Lyon in the 16th century, that family has never been identified.  Sadly, as a result, there is no known clan chief and the chieftanship has remained dormant.  Yet from that point in time, when formal and legal recognition was given to the Andersons as an 'honourable community,' a clan chief could have been there to represent that family in civic duties and on public occassions.  Without the vital leadership, the Andersons have done what they have always been good at, keeping quite in the background miniding their own business - usually very successfully.

As one Anderson put it 'we prospered while the bannock burned.'  Thinkers rather than fighters, they have had the tendency to keep to themselves and not look for trouble.  Their intellectual qualities have moved them towards words rather than wars.