Description
Moore is one spelling with five roots — a dweller by the moor, the dark-skinned man, the descendant of Maurus, the great one, and the Irish Ó Mórdha of the bog. Like all great surnames it is polygenetic: unrelated families, in different counties and different centuries, took up the same spelling independently. This book never pretends all Moores descend from one bloodline — it tells the story honestly.
The signature story is Clement Clarke Moore — the New York professor who, on December 23, 1823, gave the world “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and fixed Santa Claus for all time.
Inside: two attributed coats of arms — the Marquesses of Drogheda, blazoned verbatim from Debrett’s, and John Moore, Bishop of Norwich and Ely, impaled with the See of Norwich — a gallery of fifteen remarkable bearers — Thomas Moore the poet, George Augustus Moore the novelist, Sir John Moore of Corunna, Gordon Moore of Moore’s Law, Marianne Moore, Mary Tyler Moore, Roger Moore, and more — the poem’s world, the law that organized an industry, the maps and timelines of the name’s five crossings, six Moore places from Oklahoma to Moore Abbey, and the numbers we can stand behind: 18th in the 2010 U.S. Census (724,374 occurrences), outside the top fifteen in 2020.
The Surname Histories Series traces one family name per volume through etymology, migration, heraldry, famous bearers, and the towns that carry the name — a coffee-table keepsake for anyone who bears the name, past, present, and future, and for all those who love them.
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