De-Anglicisation of Names

[McFarkus]

Ah, more tricky ones!
BALLARD Norman-French, I'm guessing. In which case, a Gaelic transliteration would be de Ballárd.

Yes - I'm told it means "bald-headed" in middle French (which seems appropriate when one looks at Turpin and myself)

[slohairt]

Yes, etymologies are quite funny sometimes. Some complimentary and apt, while others quite bizarre. Mine is 'descended from the martial bear' which I suppose was pretty macho back in the day.

[gilmore]

...
By the way, was the double posting deliberate?

No, I don't know what happened. I guess the board hiccupped or seomthing.

[Nick the DSM]

or lagg- its known to do stuff like that.

[Frank McGrath]

This is a great thread. Try these.
McGrath, Gosnell, Galten, Jones, Boone. Thanks.

Frank

[Graywolf]

Slohairt,
A very interesting thread.
Anything on the surname Foster?

Many thanks
Cef

Foster, we may be related - I am 12th great grandson of Susan Forester, descendent of Thomas Forster, who married Joan de Elemedon, descendent of Gilbert d'Umfraville, who married Elizabeth de Comyn, Grand daughter of Richard Comyn, who is a descendent of Kenneth MacAlpine

[Graywolf]

PLease take note - none of the genealogy above has been verified befoe Gilbert - the link to MacAlpine is not fully documented - I have not verified it yet.

[graham_s]

Heh, try mine on for size.
Strowes.

[BoldHighlander]

The northern English word holm, I believe, IS derived from the Norse holmr, as many place name elements in the north of England are derived from Norse. I'm speaking etymologically, of course. This does not mean that the bearers of the name are of Norse origin, merely the word they use as a surname is.

Slohairt, I do not doubt what you tell me about Norse name origin of Holmes, I'd just never heard it before.
It's very interesting. And makes sense about (some) surnames in the north having Norse place name origins, for instance a while back in discussing the surname origin of my Scobee's (also spelled Scobie /Scoby in our family) with the Mackay Seanachaidh (Scotland) who's made a study of the family he told me that: "...they say that the name came from the ancient possession of land of this name in Perthshire, but the Scoby family of Yorks must derive from an Old Norse "-farm" name."
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(I ran across both of these recently in a web search -- )

SCOBIE: dweller at the wood farm.

Last name origin & meaning (Scobie):
Scottish: habitational name from a lost place in Perthshire, named with Gaelic sgolbach 'thorny place'.
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Anyhow, thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us

[Galician]

Forgive me if this is a duplicate, but, watching the presidential campaign for this country, the question crossed my mind as to what you could do with the name McCain.