Adair (name)

AdairOrigin

Language(s)| Gaelic
Meaning| "happy spear" or "ford of the oaks"
Region of origin| England, Scotland, Ulster
Other names
Variant form(s)| Athdare, Adair, Adare
Frequency Comparisons[1]

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 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.[2][3]

## List of persons with the surname

[edit]

* Adair (surname)

### Fictional characters

[edit]

* Daisy Adair, fictional TV character
* Helen Adair, main character in Comin' Thro the Rye (1923 film)
* Michael Adair, main character in The Conversations at Curlow Creek
* Rachel Adair, fictional character on General Hospital
* Adair (Trainz), one of several drivers on Trainz Simulator
* Finnick Odair, from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy

## List of persons with the given name

[edit]

* Adair Blain (1894–1983), Australian politician
* Adair Ford Boroughs (born 1979/1980), American lawyer and politician
* Adair Cardoso (born 1993), Brazilian singer and composer
* Adair Crawford (1748–1795), Scots-Irish chemist
* Adair Dyer, Attorney, international law
* Adair Ferguson (born 1955), Australian rower
* Adair Bushyhead "Paddy" Mayes (1885–1963), Major League Baseball player
* Adair Roche, Baron Roche (1871–1956), British judge
* Adair Tishler (born 1996), American child Actress
* Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell (born 1955), British businessman

## See also

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* Adair (disambiguation)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Adair Surname at Forebears
2. ^ Bell, Robert (1990) [1988]. 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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