As a relatively new phenomenon in the phonology of Scottish English, TH-fronting has surprised sociolinguists by its rapid spread in the urban heartlands of Scotland. While attempts have been made to understand and model the influence of lexical effects, media effects and frequency effects, far less understood is the role of social identity. Using data collected as part of an ethnographic study of a high school in the south side of Glasgow, Scotland, this talk addresses this gap in the literature by considering how variants of (θ) are patterned across three adolescent male Communities of Practice. Drawing on recent work on linguistic variation and social meaning (Eckert 2000), the article explores some of the social meanings of (θ), particularly those variants which previous research has reported as being associated with ‘toughness’ in Scottish English.