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Adair (name)

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Adair
Origin
Language(s)Gaelic
Meaning"happy spear" or "ford of the oaks"
Region of originEngland, Scotland, Ulster
Other names
Variant form(s)Athdare, Adair, Adare
Frequency Comparisons

Adair is a surname of Scotland. A common misconception is that the surname is related to Edgar, Eadgar, O'daire or MacDaire. Robert Fitzgerald De Athdare was the first Adair. He was from what is now Limerick, Ireland.

Robert Fitzgerald fought a duel against the white knight. The Earls of Desmond had three major allied and interrelated branches with each one having a hereditary knighthood denoted by colour. The Fitzgibbons were the White Knights, The Fitzmaurices and Fitzgeralds were the Green and Black. Although Robert Fitzgerald's father was Earl of Desmond, neither the hereditary knighthood or the earldom had passed to him yet. He’d killed a hereditary knight of an allied wing of the family. Reasons aren’t clear as to why he struck down his cousin but what is clear is that it turned the family against him. Robert became a fugitive, relocating to Wigtownshire in southwestern Scotland. Robert was took the surname 'Adare' after the town near his father's lands back in Ireland, or by some accounts where the duel, occurred. Ultimately his name meant Robert Fitzgerald of Adare and would later evolve into Adair. 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, slaying 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.

List of persons with the surname

Surname listThis page lists people with the surname Adair.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.

Fictional characters

List of persons with the given name

See also

References

  1. Adair Surname at Forebears
  2. Bell, Robert (1990) . The Book of Ulster Surnames (Paperback). Belfast: The Blackstaff Press Limited. ISBN 0-85640-405-5.
  3. "Robert De Fitzgerald story". Retrieved 20 August 2012.
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