Background: The Gaelic word "dubh" meaning "black" is the origin of the name Duff which thus goes back further than recorded history. There was a king of Alba named Duff in the 10th century. It is doubtful whether there ever was a Macduff, Thane of Fife, as portrayed in Shakespeare's "Macbeth". But a grand-daughter of Queen Gruoch (who became Lady MacBeth) was from the line of King Dubh and she married Aedh, a son of Malcolm III. One of his descendants, Gillemichael MacDuff, the 3rd Earl of Fife, had a grandson Michael who was the source of the Wemyss family of MacDuff, while another descendant may have been the ancestor of the Duffs of Banffshire.