The Valleyfield area was settled largely by Scots many of whom shared the same last name. The 1880 atlas shows that 13 of the first 32 properties were owned by MacLeods. They also tended to have a limited number of first names. It’s not surprising that this led to a general use of nicknames. Nicknames were sometimes related to a characteristic of the person. For example, since there were many Murdoc MacLeods in the area, nicknames such as Red Murdoc, Little Murdoc were used. Other approaches were to use the first name and initial. The abandoned farm next to ours was owned by a John MacLeod. The place was always referred to as John P’s. I did not know about the Macleod part of his name until I was almost grown up.

My grandfather, Malcolm Angus MacLeod, used the last letter of his middle name in his signature (Malcolm S MacLeod) to avoid confusion with other Malcolm MacLeods. He was also sometimes referred to as Cali Yankee Sandy, an other approach where Gaelic (Cali) was used in combination with his father’s nickname. His father was Alexander MacLeod and had spent some time in the USA, hence was called “Yankee Sandy”.

My mother was from Ontario and at first was not used to nicknames, My father had a boar that was used by several of the farmers in the area. Once he was not going to be at home when a Murdoc Macleod was coming with a sow to be bred. He told my mother that Red Murdoc was coming and asked her to show him the boar’s pen. The event went smoothly but when Dad got home my mother asked why Murdoc MacLeod was called Red Murdoc since his hair was white as snow.

Another incident of nickname confusion was when my father told my mother that Malcolm Johnnie Halum was coming to do some carpentry work. My dad was in the back fields when a man came and introduced himself as Malcolm MacLeod. he said that he would come next week to do the work. When dad got home, mom told him that Malcolm Macleod was coming next week to do the work but she thought Malcolm Johnnie Halum was going to do the job.

Prior to the early 1950’s there were no veterinarians in the area. There were a few farmers that had maintained stocks of remedies for various livestock problems many of which weren’t very effective. One time we had a cow come down with Milk Fever. The usual treatment of feeding brown sugar wasn’t working. Dr. Bud Ings who had just begun practicing in Montague was called. he came and gave the cow a drench of glycol. Within an hour the cow was up and chewing her cud. My father was greatly impressed with the ability if the new vet!

Submitted by John A. MacLeod, Valleyfield, PE. February 2026.

More Nicknames from Three Rivers area …

“Stretch” – Donald Nicholson, Upper Montague
“Long Dan” – Dan MacDonald, Upper Montague
“Re Murdoch”, “Black Murdoch”, and “Little Murdoch” – all Murdoch MacLeods, Upper Montague in the early 1900’s
      Black Murdoch and Little Murdoch were first cousins and farmed side-by-side, sharing a driveway. Both had daughters called Margaret.
“Gate Keeper”, Roy Peardon

What strange nicknames do you know?