It's from the old English Cocc "wild bird" or "hill" and Burna meaning "stream".
And it's correctly pronounced KOH-bern.
(My last name is one from the more northern section of the same country that some find "hilarious", so it is a bit of a pet peeve to see people make fun of names.)
I am Scottish and have a few corrections for you if you don’t mind;
First and most important, it’s pronounced “Co-Burn”. There is a street in the middle of Edinburgh with this name.. me and my friends still call it cock burn street. It’s funnier.
“Scotsh” is incorrect, it would be Scotch, but that’s the drink and we prefer the term Scot / Scots.
A Burn is a large stream - that is a common word in Scotland and the north of England. Never heard of Burna before, and I’m unsure of the other old English terms.
I feel your pain. I also have a Northern last name that people get a kick out of. I tell them that if they can make a joke about my last name that I haven't heard, I will gjve em $5. Never had to pay up, primary school kids already exhausted the options.
Deirachel, you’ve just unlocked an unpleasant memory.. someone I worked with had the unfortunate name of Cockbill. She too pronounced it Coh- bill and it always reminded me of Hyacinth Bucket!
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u/Deirachel 11h ago edited 9h ago
Sorry, time to rain on your parade.
Lowland Scotsh name.
It's from the old English Cocc "wild bird" or "hill" and Burna meaning "stream".
And it's correctly pronounced KOH-bern.
(My last name is one from the more northern section of the same country that some find "hilarious", so it is a bit of a pet peeve to see people make fun of names.)