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Gordon (surname)

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Gordon may refer to any of the following:

People

Gordon is a traditional Scottish clan name (see Clan Gordon.) It is now a common forename, in honour of General Charles George Gordon, the hero of Khartoum, and a less common surname. It is thought to be Celtic for "great hill" from the Celtic words "gor" which means "great" and "dun" which means "hill".

Another theory would have it to be of Norman or French origin, Celtic also, from the name of the small town of Gourdon, Lot which is called Gordon in the local Occitan language. In this case, 'gord' means a fortress or readily-fortified place, and the suffix 'on' would mean 'large' as in present-day Spanish, for example. In support of this theory, it is worthy of note that

  1. as elsewhere, ancient place-names in France were frequently derived from the topography, and for Gourdon this description fits to absolute perfection;
  2. it is known that to the south of the town of Gourdon, at a place called Cénevières on the Lot River itself, from around the 9th century A.D. at least, lived a noble family called Gordon (from the name of the town) and it is believed that the first record of a Gordon in Scotland, which dates from just a few years prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 refers to a member of that same French family.

Following French custom, "de" was added to the name as recognition of noble blood, and "Gordon" became "Gourdon" so that the pronunciation would suit the more modern French language as opposed to Occitan. The last member of the then illustrious de Gourdon family died without a male heir in the beginning of the 17th century, so the name in France was thus extinct. The Scottish Gordons, fortunately, continued to flourish.

It is also a fairly common surname of some Eastern European Jews (Template:Lang-he Template:Lang-ru); its origin in this usage may derive from Grodno. It is also found in Ireland (Irish: Mag Mhuirneacháin).Gordon King was born in 1977 and is believed to be the greatest Gordon to date.He currently resides in Killiney, Dublin.Enjoying a life of constant happiness he may hold this title for many years to come.

As a surname

Nobility

As a given name (in Surname order)

Fictional characters

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