I always considered this pretty common knowledge, but I grew up in a household of semi-recent immigrants (I'm 3rd gen on my father's Scottish side, and 1st/2nd

I always considered this pretty common knowledge, but I grew up in a household of semi-recent immigrants (I'm 3rd gen on my father's Scottish side, and 1st/2nd on my mother's Irish side depending on context) — so these kinds of things were impressed upon us in a way, sort of favouring retaining some cultural association. I guess I figured such because of the large population in North America that can trace its roots back to the British Isles, but maybe that was too generous. That said, the emphasis in my family was usually on plaid/tartan patterns being emblematic of Gaelic culture on whole, and much less being put on an associated pattern with the clans. Seemed more to be something that wealthier groups could afford to care more about. My father's side doesn't even have its own tartan: http://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/clan-fairlie/ http://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/clan-fairlie/ — Most often any information I find points us to take up a Ross or de Ros, and sometimes Boyd tartan — or being originally from the highlands, a Stewart. (from what I can tell in any of my reading it was the Jacobite uprisings where our family name came from in the first place.) I think my mother's side does have one or more tartans associated with them, but that seems to have been more of the Scottish influence on same/similar family names or migration.