What is "robb"

Robb is a surname of Scottish origin, formed from a diminution (reduction) of the name Robert. Robert was a popular name, especially after its use by three Scots Kings in the fourteenth century. Rob is first recorded as a surname in the decades before 1500 with early groupings in Aberdeenshire, Lanarkshire and Perthshire/ Stirlingshire. It is likely that the name originated with the offspring of a Robert or Rob, when surnames began to flourish, but unlike some surnames there is no one source for the name, a fact examined further by DNA testing.

The surname was originally spelled Rob, sometimes Robe, but by 1800 the vast majority of families had added an extra 'b', an exception being a wealthy farming family of Perthshire origin that settled in Thirsk, Yorkshire.

Although the surname originates in Scotland, Protestant branches of the family settled in Ireland during the sixteenth century Plantations, with the earliest recorded of the name appearing in the 1630s. The Robb of Timpany family originated with one James Robb who in the late seventeenth century was said to have been a chief mason of the King's Works in Ireland and an assistant of Inigo Jones. A descendant Captain James Robb built Timpany House in 1780. Another armorial Robb family used the surname Robe, descending from Reverend James Robe of Kilsyth (1688–1753), son of Reverend Michael Rob of Cumbernauld (1645–1721), although their coat of arms recorded with the Lord Lyon descends from the Hamilton family through marriage. The Robb crest shows a bare arm holding a chapeau surrounded with a laurel wreath.

It appears that many Robbs emigrated to the New World from Ireland, rather than Scotland. the surname sometimes became Raab, presumably through the pronunciation, although many Robbs in the New World are originally Raubs of German origin. Amongst many settlers three Jacobite soldiers were transported to America following the Jacobite rising of 1715, and the first Free Kirk Minister to settle in Canada was the Rev. Ralph Robb (1800-50) a native of Logie parish near Stirling.

The name is often recorded as a sept of the Clan MacFarlane who were based historically on the eastern side of Loch Lomond, but this only stems from an early inclusion of the surname MacRobb, (which is a Highland surname), as a MacFarlane sept. It is unlikely there was ever a link between the, largely, lowland surname and the highland clan.