Fife Family History

For several years I've been collecting information on the family and creating a family tree. Here is some information on where the name Fife came from.

Fife or the Kingdom of Fife is an active relm in Scotland. The information below is what I received from the local information store in Fife when my wife and I visited in June of 2006.

Popularly known as 'the wee kingdom', the region of Fife (formerly the county of Fife) takes its name from Fibh, a 7th centruy Pictish king. Fibh was one of the sevens sons of Cruithne, a warrior king who ruled over a wide area of ancient Scotland.

Legend has it that upon the death of Cruithne, the Pictish realm - known collectively as 'Pictavia' - was divided into seven sub-kingdoms or provinces, one of which became Fife. The name is recorded as Fib in 1150 and Fif in 1165.

The Kingdom of Fife probably also owes its popular epithet to the fact that its distinctive shape - bounded to the north by the Firth of Tay and to the South by the Firth of Forth - makes a naturally self-contained region whose boundaries have changed little over the ages.

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