Weir Family History
Weir Name Meaning
Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived by a dam or weir on a river from Middle English Older Scots wer(e) ‘weir; fish-trap’. Compare Ware and Wear . In northern England and lowland Scotland there has been much confusion with the Irish and Scottish Gaelic names in 2 4 and 5 below. Scottish: in Scotland this surname was sometimes used for Gaelic Mac an Mhaoir ‘son of the steward’ more often Anglicized as McNair . Scottish (of Norman origin): surname of a family of Blackwood (Lanarkshire) which is said to be descended from Ralph de Ver a Norman baron associated with William the Lion between 1174 and 118 The change in pronunciation from Vere to Were would be unusual in Anglo-Norman French and the true source of the surname may lie elsewhere. One possibility is Wierre in Pas-de-Calais. Another possibility is that the surname may represent versions of the Norman surname de la Were ‘of the war’ a nickname for a warrior; see Warr . Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Mhaoir ‘son of the steward’ (see McNair ). This surname was formerly Anglicized as McMoyer whence Moyers . In Scotland it more often became McNair . Irish: Anglicized form based on an erroneous translation (as if from Gaelic cora ‘weir stepping stones’) of various Gaelic names such as Ó Corra and Ó Comhraidhe (see Corr and Curry ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022