Duncan Sneddon was born in Edinburgh. He graduated with an MA (Hons.) in Scottish History and Celtic from the University of Edinburgh in 2012, followed by an MSt in Celtic Studies at the University of Oxford 2013, before returning to the University of Edinburgh for a PhD in Scottish History, which he completed in 2018. He has been involved in Scots language initiatives since high school, and has published original work in Scots and translations into Scots from other languages in several journals.