| Flotta |
Fleuks (flounders) |
| Hoy |
Hawks
Thought to be due to the number of hawks found in the island. An earlier name seems to have been Tammies or Tammy-Nories (puffins), and sometimes the Hoy folk were called Sowens. |
| Graemsay |
Limpets |
| Walls |
Lyars. (Dialect term for the shearwater bird)
"The people of Pomona call the inhabitants the 'Lyars of Wais' wrote Jo Ben.
At a later date the people of Walls were often called cockles. |
| Burray |
Oily Bogies.
A bogie
was a bag made from a sheep's stomach which was used for holding fish oil or as buoys for fishing nets. This nickname may refer
to the fatness, or greasiness, of the Burray folk. |
| South Ronaldsay - Grimness |
Gruties.
Two different origins have been suggested: (a) that the word comes from the Old Norse grautr, meaning porridge, and (b) that it has the meaning of "people who live on groot" which is dregs or refuse. |
South Ronaldsay -
St Margaret's
Hope |
Skooties.
Possibly Arctic Skuas, Scooty Alans in Orcadian dialect, a bird with the defensive habit of throwing up on potential threats. |
| South Ronaldsay - Widewall |
Witches.
Perhaps related to witch traditions or later trials. |
| South Ronaldsay - Herston |
Hogs.
A yearling sheep. |
| South Ronaldsay - Sandwick |
Birkies.
This has often been taken to mean boasters, but local tradition has it that the people here were called birkies because they had a habit of eating what they called "birken" tangles, i.e. the stout or lower ends of the large thick tangles. |
| South Ronaldsay - South Parish |
Teeicks (The dialect term for the lapwing) |
