Strathern

Strathern is a surname of Scottish origin and a toponym used in various places in the English-speaking world. The name is derived from the Scots word strath, meaning a broad valley, typically formed by a river valley, and has been adopted into family names and place-names through historical settlement and linguistic practices.

Notable individuals bearing the name include Marilyn Strathern (born 1941), a British social anthropologist and professor at the University of Cambridge. Strathern's research spans kinship, gender, and the social dimensions of science and exchange, with influential work on Melanesian societies. Her scholarship has contributed to debates in anthropology about how knowledge, value, and social relations are produced.

Geographically, Strathern appears in toponymy as a component of place-names in parts of the United Kingdom and North America, reflecting historical naming practices that drew on Scottish topographic terms. In contemporary usage, the name persists mainly as a surname, though it may appear in historical or commemorative place-naming contexts.

Overall, Strathern is best known in scholarly contexts through Marilyn Strathern, whose work has significantly shaped contemporary anthropology, while the name also remains a recognized hereditary surname and a component of geographic names.