Scottish surnames in my family?

Question:

Scottish surnames in my family?

Im researcing my family tree for my family and Im having trouble with my nan (who is dead). She has a scottish father. Her middle name is Hamilton. I have been told that sometimes girls (or children in general) are given surnames from a parent/grandparent in the family and I am just trying to confirm this. Her fathers name was David Stewart so Im not sure where Hamilton comes from, as her mother was English. If I could figure this out im sure it would help in the search. Does anyone have any ideas or could help in any please??
Also could anyone reccommend the better website to use when searching Scottish family history? E.g. getting census and birth/death data please? Many thanks for your help

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Ancestry.co.uk are now fully up to date with the Scottish census, there's also this one which is probably better than my first suggestion as it deals with Scotland not the rest of the UK.
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/...
http://www.heraldry.co.uk/scottish_clans...
As for the your nans middle name it's quite possible that it was her mum's maiden name, the mum's maiden name was given as a middle name when there was a chance of it dying out, where females are the only ones with that surname. This happened quite a lot in those times. My husbands gr/gr/gran was the bearer of her mums maiden name.
Hope this helps you.

Hamilton
Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from what is now a deserted village in the parish of Barkby, Leicestershire. This is named from Old English hamel ‘crooked’ + dun ‘hill’. Hamilton near Glasgow was founded by the Hamiltons and named after them. In Ireland, this name may have replaced Hamill in a few cases. It has also been used as the equivalent of the Irish (Cork) name ó hUrmholtaigh.

Stewart
Scottish: originally an occupational name for an administrative official of an estate, from Middle English stiward, Old English stigweard, stiweard, a compound of stig ‘house(hold)’ + weard ‘guardian’. In Old English times this title was used of an officer controlling the domestic affairs of a household, especially of the royal household; after the Conquest it was also used more widely as the native equivalent of Seneschal for the steward of a manor or manager of an estate. I thought Hamilton was an English name....Ham meaning hamlet or small village and ton meaning hill or similar...it sounds English to me so could have been her Mothers name....another thing to consider is that often when a distant relative was rich...people would give their children their name to flatter them and to secure a bequest in the will. Scots had a particular naming pattern which was
- The eldest son named after the Paternal Grandfather.
- The second son named after the Maternal Grandfather.
- The third son named after the Father.
- The eldest daughter named after the Maternal Mother.
- The second Daughter named after the Paternal Grandmother.
- The third daughter named after the Mother.