Origin of the Name Moir
The ancient history of the name
Moir was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Moir is usually of Scottish origin and is taken from the Gaelic word 'mor' meaning 'big', describing a person of large stature. Variants of the name include More, Moire, Moyer and Moirs. This name is found in many ancient manuscripts in Scotland . Examples of such are a Robertus More who was recorded as being the Burgess of Aberdeen in 1317. An Reginald More is recorded as having witnessed an Elphinstone charter in the year 1341. Names were recorded in these ancient documents to make it easier for the overlords to collect taxes and to keep records of the population at any given time. When the overlords acquired land by either force or as gifts from their rulers, they created charters of ownership for themselves and their vassals.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The Moir coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Moir descendants.