An English occupational surname, simply ‘keeper of sheep’ — a settler name carried into Ireland rather than translated from any Gaelic line.
The Sheppard certificate.
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English Origin · Root meaning ‘shepherd’
Sheppard is an English occupational surname, built directly from the Old English sceaphierde, ‘keeper of sheep’. It arrived in Ireland with English settlers rather than through any Gaelic sept, and like Robinson and Waldron elsewhere in this library, it never picked up an Irish form of its own.
A name that names a trade outright, and has done since long before it ever crossed the Irish Sea.
Irish form: (no Gaelic form)
