Ward (surname) Ward (surname) Ward is a popular Old English origin and Old Gaelic origin surname dating to before the Norman conquest of 1066 and Ireland, common in English-speaking countries. The Old English name derives from an occupational surname for a civil guard/keeper of the watch, or alternately as a topographical surname from the word "werd" ("marsh"). The Old Gaelic surname derives from "Mac an Bhaird" ("son of the Bard"), a bard being a storyteller or poet. The two names are completely unrelated ethnically one being Germanic and the other Celtic. The oldest public record of the surname dates to 1176. In
Orr (surname) name is from a topographical name for a person who lived on a shore, or ridge. This name is derived from the Old English "ora", meaning "shore", "hill-slope", "flat-topped ridge". The name could also be derived from a place-name, derived from this Old English word; for example, the surname "Ore" is derived from Oare, in Berkshire, Kent; and Wiltshire; or Ore, in East Sussex. Padraig Mac Giolla Domhnaigh, suggested that the Irish surname originates from an Anglicisation of Gaelic "Mac Iomhaire". Mac Giolla Domhnaigh stated that this was an old name from Renfrewshire, and a sept of the Campbells; he