Scott

Where the name comes from

• Latin (ethnonym), via English surname
  a Scot, a man from Scotland (originally "an Irishman")
  Latin Scotus, from Late Latin Scotti (about 1,626 years ago), "a name of uncertain origin, perhaps from Celtic"
  Scotti first meant the inhabitants of Ireland; after Alfred the Great the Old English word described only the Irish settled in northwest Britain (etymonline). DMNES records Latin Scotus/Scot as a given name in the 12th century. Modern English-speaking use is generally explained as a transfer from the surname Scott.

Scott across traditions

• Medieval European. Recorded as a Latin given name in Scotland (c. 1120 and 1124), France (Clairvaux, 1147) and Switzerland (1163) (DMNES, which records given names from European sources of 500–1600).
• Irish / Scottish. The ethnonym first meant Irish; it came to mean the Gaelic settlers of northwest Britain, whose kingdom became Scotland (etymonline).
• United States (SSA). 730,330 combined births, 1950s–2010s. #36 (1950s), peak #15 in the 1960s (266,828), #17 (1970s), #38 (1980s), #79 (1990s); out of the top 200 from the 2000s. Already a given name in 19th-century America (Scott Joplin, born 1867/68).

Who carried it

• Scott Joplin (1867/68–1917): American composer known as the "king of ragtime."

Forms in other languages

Scot, Scotty, Scottie, Scotus

Scott in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.