The 1980s Scottish boy's name that has a completely different and rude meaning in 2025
Scottish names normally have beautiful, fascinating, and profound meanings behind them - but not this one
Scottish names are revered the world over for their beautiful pronunciations, fascinating lore, and character that can really make an individual stand out from the crowd.
Celebrities like Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor and Craig Ferguson, best known for having hosted the CBS late-night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, have made certain Scots monikers even more famous.
But if we travel back in time, there was one name circulating in the 1980s that has a completely different - and rude - meaning in 2025, so much so that it might even make Scots feel uncomfortable hearing or seeing it now.
The revelation was sparked by Lesley-Anne Kelly, a data journalist for The Courier, who took to Reddit in 2022 to share the bizarre name she had uncovered when writing about baby names in our dear country.
"Sitting at my desk a few years ago prepping for the annual release of all the baby names used in Scotland, I spot that you can download a dataset that covers all the data going back to 1974 and think why not," she wrote.
"I eventually filter it down to names that have only been used once in that time. Find a few things I find amusing - a baby Beyoncé, a Starsky but no Hutch... and then I see it.
"In 1981 a baby boy was born in Scotland and his parents named him Shart."
The writer went on: "My wee brain just could not cope with the notion of a 40+ year old man cutting aboot Scotland... called Shart."
More on baby names
If you're not much of a potty mouth, have never heard the word used, or are simply clueless about what the word means, in modern day vulgar slang, 'Shart' means accidentally doing the toilet while breaking wind.
The boy named Shart was born in Dundee in 1981, according to The Courier. He is the only baby in Scotland to have been called the name. He changed his name once he grew up and realised its impolite meaning and connotations.
The Shart family name was found in Scotland between 1840 and 1920, according to ancestry.co.uk. It is mainly noted down as a surname and is believed to have its historical roots primarily in the English-speaking world.
"Its earliest appearances traced back to the medieval period," MyHeritage also notes. "The name is believed to derive from a nickname or a descriptive term, possibly linked to the Old English word sceart, meaning short or small."
There is no law in Scotland that bans names, but registrars can reject names that are offensive or inappropriate, according to Office for National Statistics.
It comes after a couple in Germany were banned from calling their son 'Lucifer' after a court ruled it was not suitable.
The decision was reportedly made by a court in Rostock, northern Germany after the parents of a boy tried to register the name with the local authorities, according to The Times.