Moore (surname)

This article is about the surname. For people who share this surname, see List of people with surname Moore. For other uses, see Moore (disambiguation).

Moore
Family name
Meaning	"living near a moor" (Geographical) or "stately and noble" or dark-skinned: a Moor
Region of origin	British Isles
Footnotes: [1]

The name Moore is a popular surname in many English-speaking countries and is of Gaelic/English origin. It is the 31st most common surname in the United Kingdom,^[2] and 9th most common in the United States.^[3]

It can have several meanings and derivations, as it appeared as a surname long before written language had developed in most of the population, resulting in a variety of spellings.

Variations of the name can appear as Moore, More or Moor; as well as the Scottish Gaelic originations Muir, Mure and Mor/Mór; the Manx Gaelic origination Moar; the Irish Gaelic originations O'More and O'Mordha; and the later Irish variants O'Moore and de Mora.

The similarly pronounced surname Mohr is of Germanic lineage and is not related to the Gaelic/English variations.

Meanings and origins

• From Middle English mor meaning "open land" or "bog" and given to persons dwelling near a moor or heath.
• The Old Irish Moores are O'Mordha, from the Irish Gaelic word mordha, meaning "stately and noble". The Anglo-Norman Moores established in Ireland's province of Munster soon after the Anglo/Norman invasion are called de Mora in Irish, a phonetic rendering of the English name which is derived from the word "moor", or "heathy mountain".
• Alternatively of Gaelic/Manx origin Moar, the name for a collector of manorial rents on the Isle of Man.
• The spelling Moore was sometimes used to indicate a son of someone called More - this being one use where spelling is significant.
• Possibly derived from Maurus, a Roman first name which meant "dark skinned" in Latin, and related to the Old French More meaning "Moor", a colloquial nickname for a person of dark complexion, often describing someone of North African descent.
• Possibly originated from early references to persons who worked with boats at a wharf or Moorage.

Frequency

In the United States, 'Moore' ranked 9th among all surnames in the 1990 Census, accounting for 0.3% of the population.^[4]

References

1. ^ British surnames - origin
2. ^ British surnames
3. ^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1990_Census_Name_Files_dist.all.last_%281-100%29
4. ^ United States Census Bureau (9 May 1995). s:1990 Census Name Files dist.all.last (1-100). Retrieved on 2008-07-04.

See also

• Clan Muir