When William Robert Holmes was christened on 15 September 1889, in Blakeney, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, his father, James Thomas Holmes, was 27 and his mother, Mary Jane Lynn, was 26. He died in 1957, in Norwich, Norfolk, England, at the age of 68.
English: either from the plural form of Holme , or else a variant of Holme or Home , with excrescent -s (see Holm ).
Scottish: probably a habitational name from Holmes near Dundonald (Ayrshire), or possibly from another place so called in the barony of Inchestuir (Angus). Both placenames likely derive from the plural form of Middle English, Older Scots holm ‘islet, raised land in a marsh’ (see Holm ).
Scottish and Irish: adopted for Scottish Gaelic and Irish Mac Thómais, Mac Thómais (see McComb ). In parts of western Ireland, Holmes is also a variant of Cavish, from Gaelic Mac Thámhais, another patronymic from Thomas . Early bearers in Ireland were probably immigrants from Scotland.
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