Clan Davidson
also Clan Davidson, Mac Dhàibhidh
Sons of David, Clan Chattan of Strathspey.
- Origin
- The Highlands & Islands, Scotland
- Motto
- Sapienter si sincere
- Famous bearer
- Arthur Davidson (1881–1950), co-founder of Harley-Davidson Motor Company
- Register
- Scottish clan
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Clan Davidson
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Clan Davidson community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Clan Davidson has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Davidson clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Davidson clan →Motto
Sapienter si sincere
“Wisely if sincerely”
What does the Davidson name mean?
Patronymic, son of David. The eponymous David is held by clan tradition to be David Dubh of Invernahavon, a son of Muriach Cattanach in the 13th century, making the Davidsons a sub-sept of Clan Chattan, the great Highland confederation centred on the Mackintoshes. The clan's territory was the Badenoch district of upper Strathspey, around modern Newtonmore. The Davidson chiefs were an inner-circle Clan Chattan family until they were nearly destroyed in 1370 at the Battle of Invernahavon, after which the surviving Davidsons reorganised under the Mackintosh banner.
The history of Clan Davidson
The Battle of Invernahavon (c.1370), at the confluence of the river Truim and the Spey, was the foundational disaster of Clan Davidson, a precedence dispute with the Macphersons within Clan Chattan turned to confrontation, and the Davidsons were nearly wiped out. The clan reformed slowly over the following centuries under continued Clan Chattan affiliation; the chief was recognised as a sub-chief of Mackintosh into the modern era. The 1396 Battle of the North Inch in Perth, thirty Clan Chattan warriors against thirty Cameron, may have been a continuation of the same Davidson-Macpherson dispute, though the historical record is contested.
William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson (1881–1950) co-founded Harley-Davidson Motor Company in Milwaukee in 1903, the foundational American motorcycle manufacturer, still producing under the Davidson name a century later. Donald Davidson (1917–2003), the Springfield, Massachusetts-born philosopher of language, was the foremost American philosophical analyst of the late 20th century after Quine. Bruce Davidson (b. 1933), the Oak Park, Illinois-born photographer, documented the American Civil Rights movement in his East 100th Street and Brooklyn Gang series.
Champions of the Davidson name
The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.
Step Into History
Walk the streets and seats the Davidson name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.
Step Into History · New
The old castle above the River Ness, the market cross and the seven-arched bridge — on the eve of Culloden.
Step Into History · New
The great castle guarding the Great Glen, newly granted to the Grants of Freuchie, whole above Loch Ness.
Notable bearers of the Davidson name
- Arthur Davidson (1881–1950), co-founder of Harley-Davidson Motor Company
- Donald Davidson (1917–2003), American philosopher of language
- Bruce Davidson (b. 1933), photographer (East 100th Street, Brooklyn Gang)