This Co. Antrim and Co. Down name is Scottish in
origin and can derive from the Gaelic word bard, a 'bard'
or 'poet'. The Scottish name MacWard, Gaelic Mac
a'Bhaird, meaning 'son of the bard', was also largely
anglicised to Baird. However, the earliest record
of it as a surname is the de Bard family of Lanarkshire
in the thirteenth century. De Bard also appears in
the following century in Aberdeenshire and the
Lothians. In this case the name is territorial in
origin, many of the Scottish Bairds descending from
Normans who came to Scotland in the train of William the
Lion in the twelfth century. These in turn had
descended from le seigneur de Barde who came to England
with William the Conqueror.
Baird is an old and popular name in Ayrshire, whence
stemmed so many of the Plantation settlers. In the
mid-nineteenth century it was found to be particularly
popular on the Upper Ards around Portaferry, Co. Down.
GLOSSARY
Clan
From the Gaelic
clann which means literally 'children'.
Mac-
From the Gaelic
mac, meaning 'son'
O'
From the Gaelic
Ó, meaning 'grandson', 'grandchild' or
'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó,
meaning 'daughter' or 'descendant'
Plantation (Ulster)
The
redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight
of the Earls' in 1607. Only counties
Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and
Cavan were actually 'planted', portions of land
there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of
bawns.
Sept
A family group of
shared ancestry living in the same locality
Undertakers
Powerful English
or Scottish landowners who undertook the
plantation of British settlers on the lands they
were granted.
Gaelic
This word in
Ireland has no relation to Scotland. As a
noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as
an adjective to denote native Irish as opposed to
Norman or English origin.
Erenagh
From the Irish
Gaelic airchinneach, meaning 'hereditary steward
of church lands'. A family would hold the
ecclesiastical office and the right to the church
or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one time
being the erenagh.
