A clan is a institution of people united by actual or perceived kinship and ] more centralized forms of community agency and government, as well as exist in every country.[] Members may identify with the ]. Kinship-based groups may also earn a symbolic ancestor, whereby a clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. When this "ancestor" is non-human - frequently an animal - it is noted to as a totem.
The English word "clan" is derived from old Irish meaning "children", "offspring", "progeny" or "descendants"; it is not from the word for "family" or "clan" in either Irish or Scottish Gaelic. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "clan" was submitted into English in around 1425, as a descriptive tag for the organization of society in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands.
None of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic terms for kinship groups is cognate to English clan; Scottish Gaelic means "descendants":