In Scots a shank is a leg, and it is also the leg of a hill. The Dictionaries of the Scots Language give nine noun senses, and the ninth is the one that ends up on maps: "a downward spur or projection of a hill, a descending ridge which joins a hill summit to the plain".
A Tweeddale writer filed it among ordinary vocabulary in 1775: "Hills are variously named, according to their magnitude; as . . . Shank, Brae, Kneis." So which sense made the surname?
Is Shank a Leg Name or a Hill Name?
Both readings are live, and the record does not decide between them. The leg sense produced surnames. The Oxford-backed Dictionary of American Family Names gives one route as a nickname for long legs or an odd gait, from Middle English shanke and Old English sceanca, noting that the word held on in Scotland where English took up the Norse leggr. Hence Cruickshank, the crooked-legged man, and Colt.
The hill sense produced places. The University of Glasgow's Scots Words and Place-Names glossary lists Shank in Midlothian alongside Shankfoot in Kirkcudbrightshire, Shankend in Roxburghshire and Meg's Shank in Dumfriesshire. Ground named that way could throw up the same byname independently in several counties, an obstacle to treating all Shanks as one kindred.
Does the Surname Come From the Midlothian Lands?
It is the reading most often printed, and it is not demonstrated. Historic Environment Scotland lists Shank Garden and the remains of Shank House in the Midlothian parish of Borthwick, and notes the walled garden as the place where John Reid wrote The Scots Gard'ner in 1683, the first gardening book by a Scot for Scottish conditions. The lands produced a territorial style too: in the 1580s John Elphinstone of Schank sold properties adjoining Arniston to the Dundas family.
What is missing is the link forward: no documented family of Shank of that Ilk carried the place-name away as a hereditary surname.
How Rare Is Shank in Scotland?
Rare to the point of near-absence. At 1881 only 8 Scots carried the singular form, out of 64 across Great Britain, and the 1901 census found 27, ranking the name 6,876th. The plural is a different story: 1,602 Scots carried Shanks in 1901, ranked 495th. Search both, but record which form each document uses. Names this thin belong with the rare Scottish surnames a DNA test will not surface.
Who Was Admiral John Schank?
The most consequential bearer, and a lesson in spelling. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records him as Schank, with Schanck and Shank as variants, baptized at Kinghorn in Fife on 26 April 1726 rather than in 1740 as older accounts print it. He joined the Royal Navy in 1757, oversaw the yard at Île aux Noix where the 300-ton Inflexible was built, saw his sliding keel approved by the Navy Board in 1791, and died at Dawlish in 1823.
A tradition that the family's Fife lands came from Robert the Bruce for finding the body of Alexander III runs through nineteenth-century accounts. Nothing in the biography supports it, and it is better treated as story than record.
How Should a Shank Line Be Traced?
- Search Shank, Shanks, Schank and Schanck as one set, noting the form each register uses rather than standardizing.
- Work Midlothian and Fife first, and read images rather than indexes through our ScotlandsPeople walkthrough: with numbers this small, one misreading loses a family.
- If the line is American, test the German possibility first: the same dictionary gives Shank first as an Americanized form of German Schank or Dutch Schenk.
Own a Piece of Shank Heritage
Gardeners have the strongest claim on this name, since the first Scottish gardening book was written in the walled garden at Shank. Three pieces carry the surname: a mug, a framed keepsake ornament and a garden flag, each setting the family crest on a tartan ground. That ground was chosen for the look of the product, not granted to any Shank household, and no pattern has ever been recorded in the name. Our explainer on what tartan tradition actually asks draws the line.
Shank Family Crest Framed Keepsake Ornament
Frequently Asked Questions About the Shank Name
Does Shank just mean leg?
No. In Scots it also means a hill spur, a stocking, a plant stalk and a mine pit. The surname could come from either sense, and the record does not settle it.
Is Shank Scottish or German?
Both, in different families. A thin Scottish strand exists, and a far larger American body of Shanks descends from German Schank or Schenk.
Is there a Clan Shank?
No. Shank has no chief, no clan organization and no tartan recognized to it.
Sources and Further Reading
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language: shank — the noun senses and the hill-spur definition.
- University of Glasgow, Scots Words and Place-Names: shank — the element in place-names.
- Historic Environment Scotland: Shank Garden, Borthwick (LB45185) — the walled garden and Reid.
- Shank House, Borthwick — Elphinstone of Schank.
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography: John Schank — the 1726 baptism and the keel.
- Shank at the 1881 census — 64 in Britain, 8 in Scotland.
- Shank, 1901 Scottish census — 27 bearers, 6,876th.
- Shanks, 1901 Scottish census — 1,602 bearers, 495th.
- Dictionary of American Family Names: Shank — the German route and the leg nickname.
- Shank — the Castlerig tradition.
A leg, the spur of a hill, a Midlothian walled garden and an admiral who signed himself Schank: the Shank designs sit here, from a catalog of 2,000-plus surnames.