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A trade name derived from the fulling (i.e. the cleansing and thickening) of newly woven cloth; a process that was known as "waulking" (which really means "working" the cloth, but as this can be done with the feet it is sometimes thought of as "walking!). As every pre-industrial community had weavers a majority of Walkers are unlikely to be M'millans; but an ancient connection between the two names is clearly evident both from personal and place-name records. A fuller or "walker" in Gaelic is fucadair, and in 1643 there appears on the island of Seil in Lorn, the homeland of the M'millans' parent kindred, a Donald Fuccader...alias McEwin V'Gillemoyll (i.e. MhicGhillemhaoil). Other versions of Mac-an-Fhucadair include MacInhuggater, Mackinquorcher, and McNowcatter; and one of the earliest records of it occurs in Knapdale where a Donald roye McInocader appears as a witness in 1547. The place-name Ballanucator (Walkerstown) appears in Mentieth on the lands of the old MacMhaolain lairds of Leny.
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