The ethnic and religious conflicts that are taking place across the Middle East prompted me to think about my own family’s ethnic history. The Simpsons are primarily Scottish with a bit of English and Irish tossed in just to make things interesting. The family name is actually derived from the name Fraser whose origins lie in the north of France and apparently meant “strawberry”.

A little bit of Scottish history— The Fraser name came from a 12th century Norman warlord called Simon Fraser who moved into the northeastern part of the country sometime after the Norman invasion of Britain.