Lachlan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A traditional masculine first name of Scottish Gaelic origin ; a long river in central New South Wales, Australia that joins the Murrumbidgee
2. A boy's given name with Gaelic roots ; a major inland river of New South Wales in southeastern Australia that drains into the Murrumbidgee
3. A masculine personal name popular in Scotland and Australia ; a waterway in the Australian state of New South Wales that flows west into the Murrumbidgee

Etymology: Lachlan is a Scottish given name whose original meaning is a place rather than a person: the Gaelic "Lachlann" or "Lochlann" meant "land of the lochs," a name for Scandinavia, the fjord-land of Norway and its neighbours. Over time it came to describe the people from there, so a Scot bearing the name was, in effect, being called a Norseman. The name is Gaelic in its form and Norse in its reference. Gaelic speakers in Scotland used "Lochlann" for the Scandinavian homeland, and the Lochlann-born man who arrived in the Highlands and Islands gave the term a personal sense. The "loch" element is the same word English uses for a lake or sea inlet, which is why the name's meaning sits so neatly with the fjords it describes.