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Archivesquestions on 2 surnames (read at your peril)
I'm not really expecting definitive answers here, I'm just putting some questions out on 2 names which I've been building up for a while.
1. Kerr
The surname is said to be from Norse meaning a patch of wet, rough ground. Yet from very early on it is clear that it was associated in Scotland with the Gaelic Cearr meaning 'wrong'/'awkward', or left handed (the word has also came into Scots and if you're left handed you might be called Kerry or Corry fisted.) What's interesting to me is that the Kerr family were popularly supposed to be left handed, and in fact several castles owned by Kerr's have left handed turnpike stairs which suggests that this was true. I don't believe the whole clan was left handed, but apparently it has been shown to have a genetic factor so they could have been distinguished by an unusually large number of lefties and played on it, since it puts your enemy at a disadvantage in a fight. Is it possible that in Scotland at least 1 branch of Kerr's could derive their surname from Cearr?
2. McGinley
This is my surname, and all the sources I've found agree it means son of Fhionngal, composed of the elements fionn 'fair' and gal 'valour'. However whenever you look up the first name Fhionngal or Fingal, including on btn, the 'gal' element is cited as coming from the Gaelic for stranger, hence it means 'fair stranger'. Even my big Oxford Names book contradicts itself between the surname and the first name, citing exactly the same spelling of Fhionngal in both entries but with different meanings. The difference is actually in just 1 letter, gal meaning valour and gall stranger.
If, as it appears, both meanings are possible and easily confused, why are sources so sure that McGinley is valour and Fingal is stranger? And why the discrepancy?
We must hang up in the belfry where the bats and moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge
1. Kerr
The surname is said to be from Norse meaning a patch of wet, rough ground. Yet from very early on it is clear that it was associated in Scotland with the Gaelic Cearr meaning 'wrong'/'awkward', or left handed (the word has also came into Scots and if you're left handed you might be called Kerry or Corry fisted.) What's interesting to me is that the Kerr family were popularly supposed to be left handed, and in fact several castles owned by Kerr's have left handed turnpike stairs which suggests that this was true. I don't believe the whole clan was left handed, but apparently it has been shown to have a genetic factor so they could have been distinguished by an unusually large number of lefties and played on it, since it puts your enemy at a disadvantage in a fight. Is it possible that in Scotland at least 1 branch of Kerr's could derive their surname from Cearr?
2. McGinley
This is my surname, and all the sources I've found agree it means son of Fhionngal, composed of the elements fionn 'fair' and gal 'valour'. However whenever you look up the first name Fhionngal or Fingal, including on btn, the 'gal' element is cited as coming from the Gaelic for stranger, hence it means 'fair stranger'. Even my big Oxford Names book contradicts itself between the surname and the first name, citing exactly the same spelling of Fhionngal in both entries but with different meanings. The difference is actually in just 1 letter, gal meaning valour and gall stranger.
If, as it appears, both meanings are possible and easily confused, why are sources so sure that McGinley is valour and Fingal is stranger? And why the discrepancy?
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge
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