gen1

The surname Love was first found in Oxfordshire, England where one of the first records of the family was listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 as a forename as in Love del Hok. The same rolls list Alan le Love and Walter Love in Cambridgeshire. Houseofnames.com

The origin of the surname "Love" is said to have come from a variety of sources. Here are a few examples:

One of our fellow Love descendents, Irl Carter, has researched the early history of our family and discovered that our ancestors were part of the Scottish "Mackinnon clan," who supported Robert the Bruce to come to power in return for land on the Isle of Skye, and hosted Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 after he lost at Culloden, and after Flora McDonald rowed him across the sea to the Isle of Skye.

The Mackinnons sheltered Charlie, threw him a banquet in their cave, and got him safely back to Mailaig on the Scottish mainland where a French ship picked him up and took him back to permanent exile in France. The Mackinnons' reward was the recipe for Drambuie, as it still says on the label.

The Love name is shown as one of the "septs" (branches or subclans) of the Mackinnons and may have been in charge of "weights and measures." Irl quotes one source as stating, "no Mackinnon signed anything for 200 years without a Love also signing it."

This surname was derived from the name of an ancestor i.e., "the son of Love." From: A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley.

Love is an ancient Kentish surname. Reginald Love held property around Chatham and Rochester during the reign of Henry V (1387-1422) and in the time of Henry VIII (1509-1547). Giles Love was a gentleman of Dover; John Love was rector of Woodchurch in 1685 (H.). The Loves have long been an old Staplehurst family of gentry; a hundred years since there were several inscriptions to this family, some of them obliterated, in the church and churchyard (H.). Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890) by Henry Brougham Guppy.

Love was a common surname in Kilbarchan Commissariot Record (Register of Testaments), 1649-1772. There seems little doubt that this surname is derived from Old French: love, 'a wolf.' From: The Surnames of Scotland (1946) by George Fraser Black (1866-1948).

Interesting Statistics

Love is the 3,349th most frequently occurring surname throughout the world. It is held by approximately 1 in 43,550 people. It is predominantly found in The Americas, where 71 percent of Loves live.

This last name is most commonly used in The United States, where it is carried by 111,658 people, or 1 in 3,246. In The United States it is primarily found in: Texas, where 10 percent are found, California, where 9 percent are found and North Carolina, where 5 percent are found. Excluding The United States it is found in 197 countries. It also occurs in England, where 7 percent are found and Australia, where 5 percent are found. In Scotland the surname is the 255th most frequently occurring and is held by 1 in every 1,459 people making Scotland the country with the highest density of the name in the world.

The surname Love has been found in records going back to the 13th century in various parts of the British Isles but this website chronicles only the families descended from James and Jane Buchanan Love both of whom were born in the mid 1700's.

Much of the information contained herein was handed down by family members who began to collect it 3, 4, or 5 generations ago. Some of the available information, at present, cannot be documented simply because of how old it is and the lack of pertinent records. For example, the information contains the suggestion that our 1st generation James Love and his son, Samuel, were born on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, which could certainly be true considering the vast number of Love families who have lived and still do live in Scotland. However, nothing has been found to document this assertion.

Further information about the birthplace of Samuel Love may be found on his page by following this link: https://loveancestry.com/Gen2.html Until more conclusive proof is found indicating James and Samuel were born elsewhere, the best information we have is: while it is likely our roots started in Scotland, we know our ancestors definitely lived in Ireland.