Today I met with a professor of mine to discuss my evaluation and he, in an unrelated conversation, asked me where my name comes from (‘Beaton’). I had to tell him the truth: I didn’t really know. I told him that I had read contradicting accounts, that it was French Flemish and that it was Scottish.

After the meeting I looked it up again on the internet. The first search result was an article I hadn’t seen before – probably new – which makes sense of it all:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hconnors/Beaton/BeatonOrigins.html

So it’s a Gaelic name that later adopted and adapted a French Flemish name for use in English speaking contexts…