Ard is a

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

origin. It is an

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

variant of the original Scottish surname Aird. View SE from near the summit of Alhang - geograph

Origins and variants

Ard is a habitational name from any of several places called Aird in Scotland, including a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

near

Hurlford Hurlford (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile Àtha Cliath'') is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It has a population of 4,968. Hurlford's former names include Whirlford and Hurdleford. The village was named Whirlford as a result of a ford crossing ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, a small village in the parish of Inch in the council area of

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

, and

the Aird The Aird (from the Scottish Gaelic: ''An Àird'' (IPA: �anˈaːɾʃt̪ meaning "The High Place") is an area of the County of Inverness, to the west of the City of Inverness. It is situated to the south of the River Beauly and the Beauly Firth, and ...

, a district in the Vale of

Beauly Beauly ( ; ; gd, A' Mhanachainn) is a village in the Highland area, on the River Beauly, west of Inverness by the Far North railway line. The town is historically within Kilmorack Parish of the Scottish County of Inverness. The land around Be ...

near

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

. These place names are derived from the Gaelic àird(e), which means "height", or "

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the so ...

", or from "àrd" which means "high", suggesting that the first to use the surname hailed from a location of high elevation. The surname Ard was first found in the historic county of Ayrshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Àir) in southwest Scotland, and the ancient

Strathclyde-Briton Strathclyde (lit. "Strath of the River Clyde", and Strað-Clota in Old English), was a Brittonic successor state of the Roman Empire and one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, located in the region the Welsh tribes referred to as Yr ...

people of the region, which today consists of the Council Areas of

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

, and

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

in the present-day region of

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

, were the first to use the name. The family likely came from the village near Hurlford in East Ayrshire, which would suggest that that location is likely the name's actual area of origin. Until the gradual standardization of English spelling in the last few centuries, English lacked any comprehensive system of spelling. Medieval Scottish names, particularly as they were Anglicized from the original Gaelic, historically displayed wide variations in recorded spellings as scribes of the era spelled words according to how they sounded rather than any set of rules. This means that a person's name was often spelled several different ways over a lifetime. As such, different variations of the Ard surname usually have the same origin. Retrieved 27 June 2018

People with the surname

Alastair Aird Captain Sir Alastair Sturgis Aird (14 January 1931 – 30 September 2009) was a British royal courtier. Aird was the second son of Colonel Malcolm Henry Aird O.B.E. (1899–1965), of the 9th Lancers, who, as son of Malcolm Rucker Aird, was a gra ...

, British royal courtier *

Catherine Aird Kinn Hamilton McIntosh (born 20 June 1930), known professionally as Catherine Aird, is an English novelist. She is the author of more than twenty crime fiction novels and several collections of short stories. Her witty, literate, and deftly plo ...

, pseudonym of author Kinn Hamilton McIntosh *

Fraser Aird Fraser Aird (born 2 February 1995) is a Canadian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Cavalry FC. Aird has also played for the Canada national team. Early life Aird is a boyhood fan of his former club Rangers due to his Scotti ...

, Canadian footballer *

Holly Aird Imogen Holly Aird (born 18 May 1969) is an English television actress known for playing forensic pathologist Frankie Wharton in the BBC1 drama series '' Waking the Dead'', having previously starred in productions such as ''Soldier Soldier'' a ...

, British actress *

Jock Aird John Rae Aird (18 December 1926 – 14 June 2021) was a footballer who played for both the Scotland and New Zealand national sides. Life and career Born in Glencraig, Fife, Aird started his professional career with Burnley, whom he joined fr ...

, Scotland and New Zealand international footballer * John Aird (disambiguation) * Kenny Aird, Scottish footballer (St Mirren, St Johnstone, Heart of Midlothian) *

Lashrecse Aird Lashrecse Dianna Aird / ˌlɔ.ʃəˈɹis/ (née Jones; born June 22, 1986) is an American Democratic politician who represented the 63rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2016 to 2022. The district includes Dinwiddie County and ...

(born 1986), American politician *

Michael Aird Michael Anthony Aird (born 12 April 1949 in Melbourne) is a former Tasmanian politician. He was an ALP member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in the Division of Derwent since 1995. From 2006 to 2010, he was the treasurer of Tasmania, one ...

, Australian politician * Peter Aird, Scottish footballer (Hibernian, East Fife) * Robert B. Aird, American neurologist *

Ronnie Aird Ronald Aird (4 May 1902 – 16 August 1986) was an English first-class cricketer and administrator. Ronnie Aird was born in Paddington, London. After Eton, he went up to Clare College, Cambridge, winning his blue in 1923. He played 136 fi ...

, English cricketer and cricket administrator *

Thomas Aird Thomas Aird (28 August 180225 April 1876) was a Scottish poet, best known for his 1830 narrative poem '' The Captive of Fez''. Early life and education Aird was born in 1802 at Bowden, Roxburghshire. His parents were James Aird, a builder, an ...

, Scottish poet

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ard Scottish surnames Surnames of British Isles origin

Origins and variants

People with the surname

See also

References