- this term for a row of houses, generally of a uniform construction with common gables, is frequently found in the names of streets. Some names which were initially spelled this way have been altered to row as a result of anglicisation. Shiprow in Aberdeen, for instance, is recorded in medieval documents as Schipraw (1417), and Potterow in Edinburgh is Potter raw in sixteenth-century sources. The town of Huntly in Aberdeenshire used to be known as the raws of Strathbogie.
The origin and meaning of the street-name Rotten Row, found in several towns in Scotland and England, has yet to be explained satisfactorily. Various suggestions have been made for the first part of the name, including the ideas that it relates to either a place that is rat-infested, or was intended to mean 'the king's road' from French route du roi, but so far opinion remains divided, and the true solution may not yet have been identified.