Elspeth is the Scottish form of Elizabeth — from the Hebrew *Elisheba* ("my God is my oath"). Used in Scottish naming since the 14th century. **Elspeth Beard (born 1959)** — **British architect and motorcyclist; in 1982-1984, at age 23, became the first British woman to ride a motorcycle around the world — covering 48,000 miles across 4 continents over 2.5 years on a 1974 BMW R60/6**. **Her 2017 memoir *Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World* was a *Sunday Times* bestseller and has been translated into 8 languages**. **The 1982-1984 trip predated GPS, mobile phones, and the modern adventure-motorcycling community — she navigated by paper maps and faced two near-fatal accidents (in Thailand and Australia) and a tribunal for her geography degree at UCL because of her extended absence**. **Elspeth Huxley (1907-1997)** — English colonial Kenyan-British writer; *The Flame Trees of Thika* (1959) was adapted into a 1981 BBC series. **Elspeth Davie (1918-1995)** — Scottish short-story writer; Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award (1978). **Elspeth in *Memoirs of a Highland Lady* (1797-1830 memoirs)**. **Elspeth Probyn** — Australian feminist theorist. **Saint Elspeth** is the Scottish equivalent of Saint Elizabeth.
Featured throughout Scottish literary tradition and modern adventure travel.
Elspeth reduces to one — the number of first British woman around the world.