Researching rare names of Whyntie, Fenty and Fentie. Origin in Scotland, now worldwide.
The following is a summary of the origin of the name.
“In 1484 the Abbot and Convent of Arbroath leased to Sir James Ogilvy of Deskford, knight, the greater tithes of the churches of Banff and Inverboyndie; the tithes of the lands of INVERQUHENTYNE, Ardbangane and Dullochie only excepted. The Inver prefix had disappeared by the 17th century. The charter version of the name provides plenty of clues for speculation about its origin. The prefix INVER demonstrates an origin of at least Gaelic age. At the same time it suggests QUHENTYNE was the old name of the nearest river or stream – the Burn of Boyne. Since Boyne and Boyndie probably come from a common origin it is highly likely that the Burn of Boyne did have another name otherwise it would be confused with the Burn of Boyndie. Breaking QUHENTYNE into its two elements we get QUHEN and TYNE of which QUHEN must have been the stressed one. QUHEN is therefore the specific and could have been used to distinguish the stream from another in the district with the second element TYNE. Going back to the 1st element QUHEN, the QUH may represent a corrected back formation from F. This suggests Gaelic for fair, beneficial or white. Alternatively QUHEN may represent Pictish, Welsh, Pre-Celtic or Brythonic GWEN with exactly the same meaning. With the 2nd element TYNE we are on surer ground. It is the name of two British rivers and has been identified as coming from the Indo – European root to flow, to melt or to dissolve. It is either Celtic or pre-Celtic. It is related to Thames, Tamar and Teign.”
There is now proof that the Quhenty family were living on the land of Quhenty in 1542. Andrew Quhenty was registered as occupying the land from Walter Ogiluy of Boyne. This is from a document held by the Elgin Family History Centre. The next recorded family name is an Andrew Quhenty/Whyntie living at Fordyce in the mid 1600s.
In the 1600 and 1700s the family spelling of the name was either Whyntie or Fenty/Fentie. The Whyntie family remained in the Deskford area, whilst the Fenty/Fentie family migrated east towards Aberdeen. An early settler of Barbados was a James Fenty.
I am researching that topic further.
I have also found that Whyntie was a dutch female christian name. Have evidence of a dutch family emigrating to New York with females with the christian name; more work to do
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