Why Ferguson?

So all this hype about Ferguson Missouri lately got me thinking, Why “Ferguson”? What does that name mean to anyone WAY TOO bored in life to hurt people vicariously. Why not St. Louis? What makes “Ferguson” a headline buzzword?

So I looked it up. It turns out it is a Scottish name derived from Gaelic.

Wikipedia says:  

Ferguson is a Scottish surname and given name. The surname is a patronymic form of the personal name Fergus. The name Fergus is derived from the Gaelic elements fear (“man”) and gus (“vigour”, “force”, or “choice”).

but actually breaking the words down I found:

fear(fer)= Man. No other definitions I could find and this was pretty conclusive.

But when I get to “gus” it starts getting blurry. One site says:

gus (Scottish Gaelic)

Preposition

gus

1. Alternative form of gu.

Conjunction

gus

1. in order to
   Chaidh e dhan bhùth gus biadh a cheannach. – He went to the shop to buy some food.

Now notice the Alternative form gu.

gu (Scottish Gaelic)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡu/

Particle

gu

1. Makes an adverb when placed in front of an adjective
   • Tha mi gu math. I am (doing) well.

Usage

• Before vowels the form gu h- is used.

Preposition

gu

1. till, until
   Fanaidh mi gu ochd uairean. – I’ll wait until eight o’clock.
2. to
   Chuir mi litir gu mo phàrantan. – I sent a letter to my parents.

Alternative forms

• gus

Usage

• Before the definite article takes the form chun and is followed by the genitive instead of the dative.
  Is toil e a bhith a’ dol gu partaidhean. – He likes going to parties.
  A bheil thu tighinn chun a’ phartaidh? – Are you coming to the party?

Derived words & phrases

• gu bhith
• gu dearbh
• gu leòr
• gu leth
• The following prepositional pronouns:

Conjunction

gu

1. that; used with the dependent form of a verb to introduce a subordinate clause. If the clause is negated, gu is replaced with nach.
   • Tha mi a’ smaoineachadh gu bheil clann aca. – I think that they have children.

So we can see here that the name Ferguson could just be “what evz” or it could be a hidden meaning. What is that meaning? Perhaps they are “Doing” “Man” or putting “man(kind)” “in order(nwo)”

I figured if I have to hear about this town people in St. Louis have never heard of, I might as well look it up. Enjoy.

​nottoobitter​