(male) From an Old French name of Germanic (Frankish) origin, derived from gār, gēr ‘spear’ + wald ‘rule’. It was adopted by the Normans and introduced by them to Britain. There has been some confusion with Gerard. It died out in England at the end of the 13th century. However, it continued to be popular in Ireland, where it had been brought in the 12th century at the time of Strongbow's invasion. It was used in England in the 17th century and revived in the 19th century, along with several other long-extinct names of Norman, Old English, and Celtic origin, and is now more common than Gerard, which survived all along as an English ‘gentry’ name.
Variant: Jerrold.
Short form: Ged.
Pet forms: Gerry, Jerry.
English: from Middle English more ‘moor’, ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘area of uncultivated land’ (Old English mōr), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in such a place or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word, as for example Moore in Cheshire or More in Shropshire.
English: from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus). The Latin term denoted a native of northwestern Africa, but in medieval England the word came to be used informally as a nickname for any swarthy or dark-skinned person.
English: from a personal name (Latin Maurus ‘Moor’). This name was borne by various early Christian saints. The personal name was introduced to England by the Normans, but it was never as popular in England as it was on the Continent.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha ‘descendant of Mórdha’, a byname meaning ‘great’, ‘proud’, or ‘stately’.
Scottish: see Muir.
Welsh: from Welsh mawr ‘big’, applied as a nickname or distinguishing epithet.