Colquhoun
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Colquhoun ( ) is a surname of Scottish origin. It is a habitational name from the barony of Colquhoun in Dunbartonshire. The Scottish Clan Colquhoun originated there. The name is possibly derived from the Gaelic elements còil ("nook"), cùil ("corner"), or coill(e) ("wood") + cumhann ("narrow"), or comh-thonn ("wave crash"). The "l" is typically silent per developments in the Scots language. It also contains the Middle Scots trigraph quh, originally pronounced /xw/, which corresponds to "wh" in English (quhilk = "which"), which means that it would correspond to a more conventional spelling "Col
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Colquhoun ( ) is a surname of Scottish origin. It is a habitational name from the barony of Colquhoun in Dunbartonshire. The Scottish Clan Colquhoun originated there. The name is possibly derived from the Gaelic elements còil ("nook"), cùil ("corner"), or coill(e) ("wood") + cumhann ("narrow"), or comh-thonn ("wave crash"). The "l" is typically silent per developments in the Scots language. It also contains the Middle Scots trigraph quh, originally pronounced /xw/, which corresponds to "wh" in English (quhilk = "which"), which means that it would correspond to a more conventional spelling "Colwhoun".
Phonetically, MacOlquhoun is similar to MacElhone/MacIlhone and therefore Colquhoun may sometimes derive from the Gaelic name Mac Giolla Còmhghan. Còmhghan is derived from comh ("together") and gan-, gen- ("born").