Burns (clan)

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The name Burns is Scottish, meaning "someone who lived or worked by the burn". The word "burn" is old Scots for a stream or small river, though it sometimes meant "oak wood". Virtually every village and parish in Scotland would have had a burn, although the Burns Family is attached to the name Campbell and in clan terms is a "sept", a family too small or fragmented to be its own clan who became attached to a larger family/clan for protection or other benefits. This arrangement would have seen the Burns family wear the Campbell tartan although in the 19th Century it had its own black and white tartan designed by a frenchman.