Tait

Black states that this name derives from the old Norse ‘titr’, meaning ‘glad’ or ‘cheerful’. It was apparently a popular nickname among the Saxons. Thomas called Tayt is recorded in a document of 1329. Between 1362 and 1370, payments of a pension were made to John Tayt who appears to have been a clerk with the Hospital of Montrose. Andrew Tayt was one of the perambulators of the boundaries of the barony of Yeochrie in 1492. The principal family of this name owned the lands of Pirn in Tweeddale. The family ended in an heiress who married Horsburgh of that Ilk, who thereafter quartered the Tait arms with his own. Archibald Campbell Tait, who died in 1882, rose to be Archbishop of Canterbury.