Northern Irish
names are used in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom.
Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
ACTON English, Northern Irish"Oak Town" in Old English. Parishes in Cheshire, Suffolk, Middlesex. There is also a place that bears this name in Ulster.
ARMOUR Scottish, Northern IrishFrom Middle English, Old French
armure, blended with the agent noun
armer (see
Armer), hence an occupational name for a maker of arms and armor. The collective noun armure denoted offensive weapons as well as the more recently specialized sense of protective gear.
BANKHEAD Scottish, Northern IrishTopographic name for someone who lived at the top or end of a bank or hill. There are several minor places in Scotland so called, but the most likely source of the surname is one on the border between the parishes of Kilmarnock and Dreghorn in Ayrshire, Scotland.
BARR Scottish, Northern IrishHabitational name from any of various places in southwestern Scotland, in particular Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, named with Gaelic
barr "height, hill" or a British cognate of this.
BOGLE Scottish, Northern IrishFrom a medieval Scottish and Northern Irish nickname for someone of scary appearance (from Middle Scots
bogill "hobgoblin").
BONAR Scottish, Northern IrishFrom a medieval nickname for a courteous or good-looking person (from Middle English
boner "gentle, courteous, handsome"). A notable bearer of the surname was Canadian-born British Conservative politician Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), prime minister 1922-23.
CRAW English, Scottish, Northern IrishOne who had characteristics of a crow; sometimes used as an element of a place name e.g. Crawford, and Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire, Crawshawbooth in Lancashire, and Crawley in Sussex
DUNDAS Scottish, Northern IrishScottish and northern Irish (Counties Leitrim and Fermanagh): habitational name from Dundas, a place near Edinburgh, Scotland, which is named from Gaelic
dùn ‘hill’ +
deas ‘south’.
FORSYTHE Scottish, Northern IrishThis surname has two possible origins. The more accepted explanation is that it comes from the Gaelic given name
Fearsithe, which means "man of peace" from the elements
fear "man" and
sithe "peace"...
[more] HARKNESS Scottish, English (British), Northern IrishApparently a habitational name from an unidentified place (perhaps in the area of Annandale, with which the surname is connected in early records), probably so called from the Old English personal name
HERECA (a derivative of the various compound names with the first element
here ‘army’) + Old English
næss ‘headland’, ‘cape’...
[more] LAUDER Scottish, Northern IrishFrom a village in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. It derives from the Celtic
Lauuedder, probably indicating a rapidly flowing river, cognate with Modern Welsh
llifer meaning 'to gush'.
LAVERY Irish, Northern IrishFrom the Gaelic
Ó LABHRADHA, "descendants of Labhradha" (
speaker, spokesman, the father of Etru, chief of the Monagh of the Irish over-kingdom of Ulaid); the name of an ancient family originating from Magh Rath (present-day Moira, County Down, Northern Ireland)...
[more] MCCAMMON Scottish, Northern IrishAnglicized form of Gaelic
Mac Ámoinn "son of
Ámoinn", a Gaelic form of the Norse personal name
Amundr, which is composed of the elements
ag "awe, fear", or "edge, point" and
mundr "protection".
MCCORD Northern Irish, ScottishAnglicized form of Gaelic
Mac Cuairt or
Mac Cuarta, apparently meaning "son of a journey", which Woulfe suggests may be a reduced form of
Mac Muircheartaigh (see
MCMURTRY).
MCGIVERN Northern IrishAnglicized form of Gaelic Mac Uidhrín, a patronymic from a personal name which is from a diminutive of odhar 'dun'. This surname is also found in Galloway in Scotland, where it is of Irish origin.
MCKINSTRY Northern IrishFrom Gaelic
Mac an Aistrigh, a reduced form of
Mac an Aistrighthigh "son of the traveller".
MCMURTRY Northern Irish, ScottishAnglicized form of Gaelic
Mac Muircheartaigh "son of
Muircheartach", a personal name meaning "navigator", from
muir "sea" and
ceartach "ruler".
MCNULTY Northern Irish (Anglicized)Irish surname historically associated with County Donegal in northwest Ireland meaning "descended of the Ulaid Nation". The surname is derived from an anglicized contraction of the original Irish patronymic
Mac "descended"
an Ultaigh "Ulaid race".
REDDICK Scottish, Northern IrishHabitational name from Rerrick or Rerwick in Kirkcudbrightshire, named with an unknown first element and
wīc "outlying settlement". It is also possible that the first element was originally Old Norse
rauðr "red".