The theory, it seems, is that Laird is a valid name prefix in Scottish for land owner and Lord is simply the translation to English, calling myself Lord would now be correct and valid, albeit misleading.
This seems more misleading in someways than Reverend as it is generally accepted (at least in UK) that one should not have a go at someone else's church or religion, so suggesting that ULC is, in any way, not a real religion, is not really allowed.
I'll ponder if I should use Lord as a prefix or not...
Update: Thanks for the various comments - it does appear to be, as I expected, a slight exaggeration of the truth, perhaps just short of a scam. It seems to be that I do own one square foot of Scottish woodland which seems it can be sold by simply contract (i.e. not registered). But the idea that owning that allows legitimate use of Laird or Lord is not quite sensible. The big clue is that they include a deed poll to change my name to have Lord on the front. If it legitimately allowed a prefix such as Lord (or even Laird), I would not need to change my name as such. Being Mr Lord Kennard or Rev Lord Kennard is a tad odd, and I'll not be doing that then.
I did email the land registry to find out if one can in fact register such a souvenir plot and what cost it would be. I suspect not a sensible cost, but would be amusing to do as presumably it means the registration for the area would need a small square hole removing from it.
From the UK Deed Poll Service (http://www.deedpoll.org.uk/AreThereAnyRestrictionsOnNames.html#TitleRestrictions):
ReplyDelete"If you have purchased a title purporting to allow you to use a title such as Sir, Lord, Laird or Lady, we will not recognise such a title because you cannot purchase a genuine British title of nobility."
So, unfortunately, you can't officially be called Lord Kennard and you don't really want to be listed on this site, do you? http://www.scots-titles.com/
Indeed, but what do the "UK Deep Poll Service" have to do with it - you are what you are known as and a deep poll does not have to be registered or "recognised" by some body. After all, I doubt "Lady Gaga" has a "title" as such. :-)
DeleteAlso, that simple does not apply as *I* did not purchase a title, someone else purchased it for me :-) If they are being pedantic, they can expect that in reply :-)
Deleteyou cannot purchase a genuine British title of nobility."
DeleteIf only...
The "UK Deed Poll Service" is a commercial organisation and has no official standing whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteThis triggered all my scam detectors, so I did a bit of digging.
ReplyDeleteHere's a Registers of Scotland article about the business: http://ezine.ros.gov.uk/ezine/articles/Souvenir_plots
http://www.scots-titles.com/fake-lairds-lords/laird-schemes-faqs appears to be a well-referenced FAQ.
OTOH, if you want to be called LordK, you can take a leaf out of Screaming Lord Sutch's book and just do so.
Including any "deed poll" document in the context of a Scottish transaction seems rather dubious (the whole concept only applies south of the border: up here, you simply use the name of your choice, though a witnessed written declaration to that effect helps for changing official documents to match the new name - nothing they can do by mail order, in any case).
ReplyDeleteNow, how about exercising your right to remove the overhanging branches from your square foot? :-)
I believe the same is true here, a deed poll is simply a written declaration to help convince people that you have changed your name. Removing branches would be fun as perhaps visiting it, but would mean a somewhat expensive survey grade GPS I expect!
Delete