Fergus or Feargus is a common and one of the oldest known Scottish or Irish male given name derived from Old Irish, meaning "the strong (one)" or "the masculine (one)". [1] [2]
As a surname, Ferguson or Fergusson is common across Scotland but particularly in Perthshire and Ayrshire. In Ireland, the Ferris family of County Kerry derives its surname from the patronymic Ó Fearghusa.
Pronunciation | English: /ˈfɜːrɡəs/ Irish: [ˈfʲaɾˠəgəsˠ] Scottish Gaelic: [ˈfɛɾɛɣəs̪] |
---|---|
Gender | Male |
Origin | |
Word/name | Proto-Celtic |
Meaning | "man-strength, virility". |
Other names | |
Alternative spelling | Fearghus, Fearghas |
Related names | Fearghal, Fergal, Ferris |
Dál Riata or Dál Riada was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now Argyll in Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. After a period of expansion, Dál Riata eventually became associated with the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
Óengus mac Fergusa was king of the Picts from 820 until 834. In Scottish historiography, he is associated with the veneration of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, although this has not been proven.
Fergus Mór mac Eirc was a possible king of Dál Riata. He was the son of Erc of Dalriada.
Eochaid or Eochaidh is a popular medieval Irish and Scottish Gaelic name deriving from Old Irish ech "horse", borne by a variety of historical and legendary figures.
Clan Fergusson is a Scottish clan. Known as the Sons of Fergus they have spread across Scotland from as far as Ross-shire in the north to Dumfriesshire in the south.
The Cruthin were a people of early medieval Ireland. Their heartland was in Ulster and included parts of the present-day counties of Antrim, Down and Londonderry. They are also said to have lived in parts of Leinster and Connacht. Their name is the Irish equivalent of *Pritanī, the reconstructed native name of the Celtic Britons, and Cruthin was sometimes used to refer to the Picts, but there is a debate among scholars as to the relationship of the Cruthin with the Britons and Picts.
Ulaid or Ulaidh was a Gaelic over-kingdom in north-eastern Ireland during the Middle Ages made up of a confederation of dynastic groups. Alternative names include Ulidia, which is the Latin form of Ulaid, and in Cóiced, Irish for "the Fifth". The king of Ulaid was called the rí Ulad or rí in Chóicid.
Gofraid mac Fergusa is an alleged ninth-century figure attested by the Annals of the Four Masters and various pedigrees concerning the ancestors of Clann Somhairle and Clann Domhnaill. If the pedigrees are to be believed, he was a son of Fergus mac Eirc, and a descendant of Colla Uais. Likewise, the two annal-entries that note Gofraid mac Fergusa claim that he was an Airgíallan ruler, who aided Cináed mac Ailpín in 835, and died sixteen years later as a ruler of the Isles. Gofraid mac Fergusa's place in the aforesaid pedigrees is chronologically impossible. The events associated with him by the annals are not supported by any contemporary or near contemporary source. In fact, the two annal-entries that recount these alleged events are fabricated additions inserted into the chronicle at some point before the mid seventeenth century.
Erc was king of Irish Dál Riata from 439 until 474, succeeding Eochaid Muinremuir. He was the father of three sons: Fergus Mór, Loarn and Oengus. He also may have been the great-grandfather of Muirchertach mac Muiredaig. Confusion arises from the latter's matronym, Macc Ercae, said to come from his legendary mother Erc ingen Loarn, daughter of Loarn mac Eirc. She married Muiredach mac Eógain. According to the Duan Albanach and the Senchus Fer n-Alban, Erc of Dál Riata's father was Eochaid Muinremuir, son of Áengus Fert, son of Fedlimid, son of Oengus, son of another Fedlimid, son of Senchormaich, son of Cruitlinde, son of Findfece, son of Archircir, son of Eochaid Antoit, son of Fiacha Cathmail, son of Cairbre Riata, son of Conaire Cóem and Saraid ingen Chuinn.
Uuen son of Onuist, commonly referred to by the hypocoristic Eóganán, was king of the Picts between A.D. 837–839.
The origins of the Kingdom of Alba pertain to the origins of the Kingdom of Alba, or the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland, either as a mythological event or a historical process, during the Early Middle Ages.
Dál Fiatach was a Gaelic dynastic-grouping and the name of their territory in the north-east of Ireland, which lasted throughout the Middle Ages until their demise in the 13th century at the hands of Normans. It was part of the over-kingdom of Ulaid, and they were its main ruling dynasty for most of Ulaid's history. Their territory lay in eastern County Down. Their capital was Dún Lethglaise (Downpatrick) and from the 9th century their main religious site was Bangor Abbey.
Aodh is a masculine Irish and Scottish Gaelic given name, which was traditionally anglicized as Hugh. The name means "fire" and was the name of a god in Irish mythology.
Deda mac Sin was a prehistoric king of the Érainn of Ireland, possibly of the 1st century BC. Variant forms or spellings include Ded, Dedu, Dedad, Degad, Dega, Dego, Deguth and Daig, with some of these occurring as genitives although usage is entirely unsystematic, besides the rare occurrence of the obvious genitive Dedaid.
Dáire is an Old Irish name which fell out of use at an early period, remaining restricted essentially to legendary and ancestral figures, usually male. It has come back into fashion since the 18th century. The anglicised form of this name is Dara.
The Síl Conairi or "Seed of Conaire" were those Érainn septs of the legendary Clanna Dedad descended from the monarch Conaire Mór, son of Eterscél Mór, a descendant of Deda mac Sin, namely the Dál Riata, Múscraige, Corcu Duibne, and Corcu Baiscinn.
The House of Óengus is a proposed dynasty that may have ruled as Kings of the Picts and possibly of all of northern Great Britain, for approximately a century from the 730s to the 830s AD. Their first ruler of Pictland was the great Óengus I of the Picts, who may be the figure carved into the St Andrews Sarcophagus pictured on the right.
Clann Somhairle, sometimes anglicised as Clan Sorley, refers to those Scottish and Irish dynasties descending from the famous Norse-Gaelic leader Somerled, King of Mann and the Isles, son of Gillabrigte (†1164), and ancestor of Clann Domhnaill. Primarily they are the Clan Donald, formerly known as the Lord of the Isles, and the mainland Clan MacDougall and all their numerous branches. Clan Macruari are their lost sept.