indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Surname
Usage Scottish
Meaning & History
A Scottish surname of unknown origin and meaning. A clerihew is a humorous or satirical verse consisting of two rhyming couplets in lines of irregular metre about someone who is named in the poem. It was invented by the British author Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956; Clerihew was his mother's maiden name). The following example was written by his son Nicholas Clerihew Bentley: 'Cecil B. De Mille/Rather against his will/Was persuaded to leave Moses/Out of "The Wars of the Roses".'