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Scottish EthnicityScottish ethnicity is a term used to describe the historical backgrounds and family roots of residents of Scotland. The people of present day Scotland are mainly descended from 5 ethnic groups, 3 Celtic and 2 Germanic. The Scots (or Gaels) who came from Ireland, the Picts (whose origins are unknown) and the Brythonic Celts (akin to the Welsh who once lived in southern Britain) are the Celtic nationalities, while the Danes invaded eastern Scotland in the 9th century and heavily intermarried with the Scottish, while the Angles invaded southern Scotland shortly afterwards and intermarried themselves with the Scots. The Scottish are most akin to the Irish, but many technically share some common heritage with the people of Scandinavia and modern day England. In the 17th and 18th centuries the English crown sent thousands of loyalist Protestant settlers to Ulster (the northern province of Ireland) to replace the Catholic Irish residents, who where "removed" (also called ethnically cleansed). Though the Anglican, Anglo-Irish community really did not intermarry with the Irish, the Presbyterian, Scotch-Irish community did. Since originally the Prebyterians of Scottish descent in northern Ireland faced much of the same discrimination as their Irish Catholic neighbours they tended to sympathize and indentify with them more. Today there are about 6 million ethnic Scots in Scotland (almost all of the population) and more than 30 million in North America, as well as a large population in Australia. Making them a small nation, but still a large nationality! Today there are also many Scottish surnames which have become "anglicized" (made to sound English) over the centuries. Mainly as a result of English rule after 1707 and attempts to "anglicize" Scottish culture by the English. Davis, Bruce, Campbell, Salmond, Wallace, Marshall, Christie, and Joy are just a few of many examples. However most Scottish surnames have remained Gaelic, as with Irish surnames Mac (sometimes Mc) is common as it once meant (son of). MacDonald, Balliol, Gilmore, Gilmour, MacKinley, MacKintosh, MacKenzie, MacNiell, MacRyan, MacPhearson, MacLear, McDonald, McKenzie, MacAra, MacNamara, MacManus, Lauder, Menzies, Galloway, Duncan, and Morton, are just a few of many examples of traditional Scottish surnames.
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