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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 |
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