When reviewing Scottish naming practices, one should in bear mind that Scotland has always been a multilingual and multicultural society. Until the mid 17th c. each Gael, in compliance with the Celtic tradition, had a single given name plus a patronymic byname. The Anglo-Saxon settlers, who came to South-East Scotland around the 6th century, followed the own Germanic naming conventions. Later, traditional Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon names were displaced by Biblical names. However, till the late Middle Ages choosing a baby name was not formally subject to any regulation. Nowadays, a significant percentage of baby names registered in Scotland are of Gaelic origin. On the whole, distinctly Scottish versions of common British given names grow in favour. The paper explores sociolinguistic aspects of traditional and modern naming practices in Scotland both in a diachronic and synchronic sense and analyses some important recent developments in this field.