 Hamilton Academy had four 'houses' named after Lanarkshire rivers or tributaries and, given the selective nature of the intake of pupils from across the whole County of Lanarkshire, every student was allocated to one of these depending on their town or area of origin.The names of the 'houses' were Cadzow, Calder, Clutha "(Scots Gaelic for Clyde)" and Kilbryde "(in the last two school sessions only of Hamilton Academy re-named Avon, Brandon, Clyde and Douglas (under a new 'house' system introduced by Rector Alfred Dubber.