9,743 Global BURNSIDE Family Members

BURNSIDE Family History

Burnside is generally accepted as being of Scottish origin, but is more properly a Scottish 'Highland' and an 'English Border' surname, with a foot in each camp. Its origins are Olde English pre 7th century, the derivation being from 'Brunwold heved'. This translates as 'Brown wolfs hill', but whether this refers to a hill owned by a man called 'Brownwolf' or whether it was the lair of the 'brown wolves', is open to argument. As there are at least nine known such sites in England and Scotland, in our opinion as people were generally in awe of wolves, naming a place after them seems quite logical...