Adair (name)

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Adair
Family name
Meaning "happy spear" or "ford at the oaks"
Region of origin England, Scotland, Ulster
Language(s) of origin Old English
Related names Edgar, Agar, Eager, O'Daire, MacDaire
Footnotes: Frequency Comparisons[1]

Adair is a surname derived from the Old English personal name Eadgar (Edgar). In Ireland the surname is almost exclusive to Ulster and particularly to counties Antrim and Down. Here they are of Scottish origin where the surname is most common in Galloway. Many of the Galloway Adairs settled in Ulster during and after the Plantation. A few of the name in Ireland may be of the family name Ó Dáire.

There is another theory that "In about 1380, Robert Fitzgerald owned lands around Adare in Ireland. There he fought a family duel with Gerald, the white knight, a distant cousin. Although Robert Fitzgerald's father was the Earl of Desmond, the Fitzgeralds did not see Robert as a nobleman. It was unacceptable for him to kill a knight. A powerful group was against Robert. Robert became a fugitive, relocating to Wigtownshire in south western Scotland. To cover his tracks, Robert took as his surname 'Adare' after the town near his lands back in Ireland. Upon arriving in Scotland, Robert learned that the King of Scotland had placed a bounty on the head of a man named 'Currie'. Currie was outlawed as a thief and pirate. The King promised Currie's castle, deemed nearly impregnable, to whoever would bring him the head of Currie. Robert Adare watched over Dunskey castle for several days until Currie came out one evening. Robert followed Currie, and engaged the pirate in mortal combat, slewing him at the head of Colfin Glen. Robert took Currie's severed head to the court of Scotland," which explains the Adair crest of a severed head.[2][3]

List of persons with the surname

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Fictional characters

  • Daisy Adair, fictional TV character
  • Rachel Adair, fictional character on General Hospital
  • Adair (Trainz), one of several drivers on Trainz Simulator
  • Finnick Odair, from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy

List of persons with the given name

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See also

References

  1. ↑ Adair Surname at Forebears
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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