This is a rare Scottish locational surname which according to Black's "Surnames of Scotland" is from the place called Strath on the River Dee in Aberdeenshire, however we have not been able to identify such a place. There is however the Strathdee Distillery near Aberdeen which is listed in Scottish place names, so perhaps this is the origin of the surname. Locational surnames are usually "from" names, or surnames given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. However this does not apply in the north of Scotland and far away in Cornwall, where locational surnames were given to people because they did live in a certain place. This has resulted in whole villages with the same surname and a profusion of nicknames! Strath or Strathe as a surname is recorded in Aberdeenshire from the time of King James 11nd, the last Catholic monarch (1685 - 1690), with that of James Strathe at Auchterless on June 12th 1686, and as Strathdee from about a century later with Robert Strathdee who married Helen Craib (?) at Turriff on May 3rd 1783.