This surname is derived from a geographical locality. (1) 'at the craig,' i.e. crag, from residence thereby. More specifically (a) 'of Craig,' a name given to several parishes and villages in Scotland. Both (1) and (a) are Scotch.

1748. Married — Alex. Craigg and Elizabeth Johnson: St. George's Chapel, Mayfair.

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the crag' or 'crags,' from residence thereby.

Adam del Crag, Lancashire, 1332: Lay Subsidy.

Robert del Crag, Lancashire, 1332: ibid.

1582. Francis Puckeringe and Blanche Cragge: Marriage Lic. (London).

1502-3. John Cragges and Elizabeth Connylowe: ibid.

Local. As the surname occurs in early Scots records in many parts of the country it must have originated from more than one locality. In the fifteenth century there were three families "of that Ilk." The name was also common in Edinburgh in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and so elsewhere throughout the Lowlands. Johannes del Crag witnessed a charter by William the Lion, and Robertus de Crag witnessed one in the reign of Alexander II (REG., p. 83,123). Walter del Crag was an elector in 1278 (Bain, 11. 147). Anneys del Crage of Edinburghshire and Johan del Cragee of Lanarkshire rendered homage, 1296 (ibid., p. 209,213). The land of James del Crag, son and heir of John del Crag, in Ayrshire is mentioned in 1323 (Irvine, I, p. 123). The dramatic intervention of John of the Craig with his band of 300 "played a decisive part in the battle of Culblean on 30th November 1335" (PSAS., LXIV, p. 54). Johannes de Crag, burgess of Aberdeen, had a charter of land in the lordship of Rubyslaw in 1358 (RMS., I, 107), and for two centuries and a half later a family of this name was seated at Craigfintray (afterwards Craigston) Castle near Kildrummie. William de Crag was elected counci lor of Aberdeen, 1398 (CRA., p. 374), and Richard de Crag, presbyter and notary public of St. Andrews diocese, 1415, may be the Richard de Crag, vicar of Dundee, 1443 (REG., 325). In 1429 the lands of Estircrag in the barony of North Berwick were granted to Walter de Crag in succession to his father, John Crag (RMS., II, 145). David of Crag, a Red Friar in Aberdeen in 1439, is referred to again, in 1442 simply as David Crag (Friars, 29, 30). William Craigh, merchant in Culross, 1668 (Dunblane). John Craig (1512—1600) was colleague of John Knox.

English genit., or pl., of Cragg, q.v.

A parish in Forfarshire, and an estate in Perthshire. As a topographical expression, Craig has the same meaning as Carrick.

A rock, a crag.

(Cornish-British and Welsh.) A rock, a crag, a stone; Gaelic, carraig, a rock, creag, a rock.

Craig is a common Scottish surname found mostly south of the Forth and the Clyde.