Where did the name Murray come from? What is their coat of arms? When did the Murray family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the history of the family name?

Text Size

Coat of Arms > Murray Coat of Arms

Murray Coat of Arms and Name History

Murray

Origin Displayed: Scottish-Alt

Origins Available: Irish, Scottish-Alt, Scottish

Spelling variations of this family name include: Murray, Murrey, Moray, Morey, Morrey, Morry, Murry and many more.

First found in Moray , where they were seated from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Andrew, Anne, Archibald, Bernard, Catherine, Charles, Daniel, Denis, Edward, George, Henry, Hugh, James, John, Martin, Michael, Patrick, Peter, Robert, Thomas and William Murray who all arrived in Philadelphia between 1800 and 1870. In Newfoundland, James Murray was in possession of property and was a fisherman of St. John's in 1784.

Motto Translated: Fear God

Suggested Readings for the name Murray
Family Ties of Roy Harold Murray by Miriam Clouds Murray, Golden Clan: the Murrays, the McDonnells, and the Irish American Aristocracy by John Corry.

Some noteworthy people of the name Murray

Bill Murray (b. 1950), Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-winning American comedian and actor
Patty Murray (b. 1950), American Politician, United States Senator for Washington (from 1992)
Jeanne Murray (b. 1923), original name of American Jean Stapleton
John Murray (1741-1815), American theologian
Lindley Murray (1745-1826), American grammarian
Jim Murray (1919-1998), American who won the NSSA's Sportswriter of the Year award an astounding fourteen times (twelve of those consecutively). In 1990, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his 1989 columns, and the Baseball Hall of Fame awarded him the J. G. Taylor Spink Award in 1987
Sir Terrence Ubrey Murray (1810-1873), Irish born, settler and architect in Australia
Keith Anderson Hope Murray (1903-1993), Baron Murray of Newhaven, British academic
Alexander Stuart Murray (1841-1904), Scottish archaeologist
Gilbert Murray (1866-1957), Professor and Greek scholar at Oxford University
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray (1837-1915), British philologist and the original lexicographer of the Oxford English Dictionary
George Iain Murray (1931-1996), 10th Duke of Atholl
Kenneth Randolph Murray (1913-1995), 11th Earl of Dunmore
William Murray (b. 1930), 8th Earl of Mansfield, Scottish nobleman and Conservative politician
Anne Murray (b. 1945), Canadian singer
David Murray, Scottish entrepreneur
Alexander Murray (1775-1813), Scottish philologist
Charles Murray (1864-1941), Scottish poet
Lord George Murray (1700-1760), Scottish Jacobite soldier
George Gilbert Aimé Murray (1866-1957), Australian classical scholar
John Murray (1745-1793), Scottish publisher
Sir John Murray (1841-1914), Canadian marine zoologist
Keith Bay Pearce Murray (b. 1892), New Zealand architect and designer
Len Murray (b. 1922), English trade union leader
Les Murray (b. 1938), Australian poet
Matthew Murray (1765-1826), English inventor
William Staite Murray (1881-1962), English potter
First Lieutenant Charles P Murray Jr., who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944