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JAMES W. CATRON, JR., Juris Doctor
595 SH 32
Marietta, OK, 73448
james.catron.us(a)member.mensa.org
May 14, 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 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 surmanes Ketrin, Ketring,
Kettering and Kettenring.
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
hes he cheist amang thai dully glennis.
15-- Scottish Field in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 219
There came at his commandement: Ketherinckes full
many from Orkney that Ile.
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.
2. gent Brigand, freebooter, marauder.
1870 Lowell, Study Wind, 216, The statecraft of an
Ithacan cateran.
1880 Mrq. Salisbury in Manch. Guard. 17 Oct. They (theMontenegrins)
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.” It is still used
in Gaelic to mean the Wild Geese, the Irish and Scottish mercenaries who
fought so many of Europe’s wars. In short, cat means war and nach is man
or fellow, thus Catanach, a common Scottish surname, means Warrior in
Old Celtic.Catron was its plural, Warriors, until about 400 years ago,
when it came to be the singular Warrior.
More interestingly, ceatharnas means heroism. Ceatharn or cateran or
ketring meant HERO to the Celts and MARAUDER to their enemies.
Two centuries after the event, Livy, in his History of Rome, wrote of
the Celtic Ceutrone tribe killing many of Hannibal's men and war
elephants in the Alps in 218 B.C. They were indigenous to Savoy and
attacked when Hannibal's quartermasters failed to pay for provisions
bought from the locals.Savoy is not far from the homeland of our
Bavarian ancestors.
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. Neither our name nor the trademark has anything
to do with chains.
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. Those records qualify their
descendants for the D.A.R. and the S.A.R.
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.
I trust you greet this information with the same pride in our warrior
hero ancestors that I do.
JAMES W. CATRON, J.D.