Origin
ADAIR : (Celtic and Gaelic.) Local. From Ath, a ford, and dare, from darach, the place of oaks, The ford of the oaks.'' There is the following tradition of the origin of this surname: Thomas, the sixth Earl of Desmond, while on a hunting excursion was benighted, and lost his way, between Tralee and Newcastle, in the county of Limerick, where he was received and hospitably entertained by one William McCormic, whose daughter he subsequently married. At this alliance, the family and clan took umbrage. Resigning his title and estate to his youngest brother, he fled to France in 1418, and died of grief at Rouen, two years afterward. The King of England attended his funeral. He had issue, Maurice and John; Robert, the son of Maurice, returning to Ireland, with the hope of regaining the estates and title of Thomas, his ancestor, slew Gerald, the White Knight in single combat at Athdare, the ford of the oaks, whence he received the name of Adaire. He embarked for Scotland, where he married Arabella, daughter of John Campbell, Lord of Argyle.
CHILDS : Child, Page and Varlet were names given to youths from seven to fourteen years of age, while receiving their education for knighthood.
CORMAC : (Celtic.) The son of the chariot; first given, it is said, to a prince of Leinster who happened to be born in a chariot, while his mother was going on a journey.
GUELPH : A wolf; the surname of the present Royal Family of England. We have the following amusing tradition of the origin of the royal house of Guelph: It is told in the chronicles that as far back as the days of Charlemagne, one Count Isenbrand, who resided near the Lake of Constance, met an old woman who had given birth to three children at once, a circumstance which appeared to him so portentous and unnatural that he assailed her with a torrent of abuse. Stung to fury by his insults, she cursed the Count, and wished that his wife, then enciente, might bring at a birth as many children as there are months in the year. The imprecation was fulfilled, and the countess became the mother of a dozen babes at once. Dreading the vengeance of her severe lord, she bade her maid go drown eleven of the twelve. But whom should the girl meet while on this horrible errand but the Count himself, who, suspecting that all was not right, demanded to know the contents of the basket. 'Welfen,' was the intrepid reply (i e., the old German term for puppies or young wolves). Dissatisfied with this explanation, the Count lifted up the cloth, and found under it eleven bonny infants nestled together. Their unblemished forms reconciled the sorupulous knight, and he resolved to recognize them as his lawful progeny. Thenceforward, their children and their descendants went by the name of Guelph or Welf
LENNOX : (Gaelic.) Local. From the County of Lennox; Scotland. The original name was Leven-ach, the field on the Leven, from the river Leven, which flows through the county, called in Latin Levinia. The river was so called from Llyfn, in the Welsh, which signifies a smooth, placid stream. Leven-achs, for a while spelt and written Levenax, and finally Lennox. Arkil, a Saxon, a baron of Northumbria, who took refuge from the vengeance of the Norman William under the protection of Malcom Canmore, appears to have been the founder of the Lennox fannly.
PAGE : Child, and Varlet, were names given to youths between seven and fourteen years of age while receiving their education for knighthood.
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