15,545 Global COBURN Family Members

COBURN Family History

This long-established surname, with the variation Coburn, is of early medieval Scottish origin, and is a territorial name from the lands so named in the Merse, Berwickshire. The component elements of the placename are either the Olde English pre 7th Century "cocc", cock, wild bird, or the Olde English "cocc", hill, with "burna", small spring, brook, stream; hence, "stream frequented by wild birds", or "hill by a stream". In the reign of William the Lion (1165 - 1214) there was a district called "Cukoueburn" in the territory of Clifton, Roxburghshire, and the surname may, in some instances, derive from this source.