Quote Originally Posted by highlander_Daz View Post
a branch of my family is called "green" which is traditionally an English name however they are all Pikeys, my uncle claims is from the word "Grain" which means "the sun" or a mispelling of "Greer" by a short sighted priest from "Mc Gregor"

any thoughts??
Dia Dhuit, Highlander _Daz,

There may be a grain of truth to that story. (Sorry, bad joke) "Grian" is, in fact, the Gaelic word for "sun." The genitive case is "Grèine" pronounced GRAIN-yA. How it could have been used as a surname, I'm not sure. Mac an Ghrèine ("son of the sun") seems an unlikely patronymic.

Sometimes the word was used in reference to Summer. Grianan of Aileach (in my home county of Donegal) means "Summer Home of Aileach." So, "son of summer" could be a possibility. I believe there is a Norse name Summerled which means just that.

Greer is, indeed, from Mac Grioghair. The "gh" was silent to some dialects.