James W. Catron, J.D.
June 10, 2015
I have solved the riddle of the origin of our surname. I have a degree
in history and was elected by my professors to Phi Alpha Theta, the
international history honorary society in 1970. Being bent toward
history, I had long puzzled over the mystery of the Scottish Loch
Katrine, the English village of Kettering, the French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Irish, and Scottish surname of Catron, the Italian Catrone,
the Welsh Cadryn, Livy's Alpine Ceutrone tribe of Celts who attacked
Hannibal's elephants, the Latin word cateranos, and the Bavarian
surnames Ketrin, Ketring, Kettering and Kettenring.
I realized that the only thing those countries have in common in this
matter is that each was a Celtic nation before the Roman conquests. The
similarities and antiquity of these names led me to believe that they
are of Celtic origin. A clue came from the
Compact Edition of the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language (1971)
definition of "cateran."
Cateran. Forms: katherinck, katharin, catherein,
kettrin, kaitrine, catheran, katheran, cateran.
(Lowland Scots catherein, kettrin, appears to represent
Gaelic ceathairne collective 'peasantry', whence
ceathairneach 'sturdy fellow' (McAlpine); Cormac
has Irish ceithern, which O' Donovan renders 'band
of soldiers', thence ceithernach 'one of a band'.
The th has long been mute in Celtic, and the Irish
ceithern is phonetically represented by English
Kern. It is not easy to account for the preservation
of the dental in Lowland Scots, unless perhaps
through the intermediation of medieval Irish as
in Bowers' cateranos. Stokes refers ceithern to
Old Irish keitern, Old Celtic keterna, a feminine
a-stem.
1. a. prop. a collective sb. Common people of
the Highlands in a troop or band, fighting men.
Hence b. One of a Highland band; a Highland irregular
fighting man, reiver, or marauder.
1371-90 Statutes 12 Robert II (James) Of Ketharines
or Sorneris. They quha travells as ketharans etand
the cuntrie and takand their gudis be force and
violence.
1430 Bower, Comin. Fordus 1396, (James) Per duos
pestiferos cateranos et eoram sequaces.
1505 Dunbar, Sir T. Norvay 13, Full many catherein
he heist amang thai dully glennis.
15-- Scottish Field in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 219
There came at his commandement Ketherinckes full
many from Orkney that isle.
1768 Ross, Helenore 120 (James) Ask yon highland
kettrin what they mean.
1816 Scott. Old Mort. vi, Grahame of Montrose and his Highland caterans.
1832 Blackw. Mag. 65/2, These overgrown proprietors
with their armies of catherans.
1887 Dr. Argyll, Scotland as It Was II, 6, Plundering
Caterans always ready to flock to those who promised
booty.
Brigand, freebooter, marauder.
1870 Lowell, Study Wind, 216, The statecraft of an
Ithacan cateran.
1880 Mrq. Salisbury in Manch. Guard. 17 Oct. They (the Montenegrins) are
caterans, cattle-lifters.
Not surprisingly, MacFarlane's Gaelic Dictionary’s definitions are more
helpful than the Oxford’s. “Ceathairne means yeomanry, men fit for
warfare. Ceatharn is a troop or company of soldiers.” The word is still
used in Gaelic to mean the Wild Geese, those Irish and Scottish
mercenaries who fought so many of Europe’s wars.More interestingly,
ceatharnas means heroism. Ceatharn or cateran or ketring meant HERO to
the Celts and MARAUDER to their enemies.
Ketrin, Ketring, Kettering, and Kettenring are nonsensical words in
German. Some, including Henry Hardy Catron, have speculated that
Kettenring means chainlink or chainring, but this is not so.
Maschendraht is the German for chainlink, and kettenblatt is chainring.
The original Ketrin hansa is a farrier’s guild trademark engraved on a
beer stein in a museum in Germany. It has no chain on it. Henry Hardy
Catron added that artistic touch himself.
When the Kettenring family emigrated to America in the 1760's, they
settled in Virginia and lived among the Scots-Irish Celts of Southwest
Virginia. Several served in the Virginia militia in Lord Dunsmore’s War
on the Shawnees and their paymaster transmuted their Germanized name
Kettenring back to the Celtic Catron.
I realize that many Catrons cherish the hansa; however, the name is far
more ancient and noble than the 1730 trademark of a farrier named Ketrin.
Two centuries after the event, Livy, in his History of Rome, wrote of
the Celtic Ceutroni killing many of Hannibal's men and war elephants in
the Alps in 218 B.C. Some historians believe they were indigenous to
Savoy and attacked when Hannibal's quartermasters failed to pay for
provisions bought from themOthers say the Ceutroni were soldiers in the
army Hannibal had recruited in Catalonia who revolted when their pay was
shorted.
_http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&s..._
According to this dictionary, Catalonia means place of the warlords. The
consonantal shift of L to R is common in the evolution of many
languages, dialects, and words. In fact, Catralunya and Catalunya are
the Catralan or Catalan variants of the Spanish Catalonia.
Furthermore, the Catron family’s Y DNA is R-SRY2627, a rare one found in
its highest concentration in Catalonia and thinly spread over Europe by
Catalan men recruited into Hannibal's Carthaginian army and into the
Roman Legions for centuries.
I trust you greet this information with the same pride in our Celtic
catralan warrior-hero ancestors that I do.
JAMES W. CATRON, J.D.
james.catron.us(a)member.mensa.org <mailto://james.catron.us@member.mensa.org>