Stairmand

Recorded in several spellings including Starmont, Storment, Stormont, Stormonth, Stormount, Stormon and possibly Stairmand, this is a Scottish surname. Well recorded in Ulster (Northern Ireland), and also in the city of London, it may be partly French through the suffix of mont or mond. It originates from a place called Stormont in the former county of Peebles, Scotland. The name means the hill (mond or mont), covered by brushwood (storres), and this place was first recorded in the 12th century. After the conquest of England in 1066 various parts of Scotland particularly just north of the English border, were given as land grants to Norman knights by the king of Scotland. This was a form of insurance against attacks from the south, and provided him with the nucleus of a standing army that owed undoubted allegiance. In Edinburgh the name is usually recorded as Stormouth or Stormonth, in Glasgow it hardly appears at all, whilst in Belfast it is always Stormont. In London there are a variety of spellings including Starmont and Storment. It also appears in France as Stormont, but this is a British Embassy recording from 1844. According to the Scottish Dictionary of Surnames, the surname is first recorded with that of Richard Stormonth in the barony of Banff in 1507. However surnames were in use in Scotland several centuries before this date, and presumably earlier examples will exist, probably in unpublished charters.