Talk:Orr (surname)

Discussion as copied from User talk pages[edit]

Please transfer the listing of individual Orrs to Orr (disambiguation), a page specially created to list all such people. It would make sense to stick the article about the history of the name/clan to that. You can reply to this msg on my talk page. the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 22:36, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your suggestion. I had actually considered removing the individuals from the disambig page, in contrast to what you've suggested. The reason I added the names was because I modelled the article, in part, on the article for McCarthy. Please advise further. --Mal 22:43, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome. Here are the reasons:

McCarthy is a disambig itself (tag's on the bottom)
Nothing but people is named McCarthy.[1] Orr, on the other hand, is a city in MN, a US gov't agency and a fictional character, and potentially other things.
McCarthy article is very little about the origins of the name, unlike the Orr, which is very much.
Finally, consider: if 2 people are looking for, say, Orr, MN, and Bobby Orr, and both type in "Orr", you'd want them to go to one page automaticly that would list both, b/c "Orr" is a plausible search for both. Not people separate, non-people separate.

Makes sense? the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 22:50, 16 March 2006 (UTC) Consider taking the "orrvilles" out altogether - nobody would search "Orr" when trying to find "Orrville" the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 22:52, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, looking that the McCarthy page, it lists places[2] and people. Perhaps a different suggestion would be to rename the Orr (surname) to Orr after that article has been renamed (as was your proposal), and the article reworded afterwards to reflect this, and a disambig tag added. In that way, the Orr page would become very much like the McCarthy page. The McCarthy page does have a history, albeit a short one. I'd be willing to keep an eye out and make the appropriate changes when they need made. Your thoughts? --Mal 23:00, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The towns named Orrville, as far as I understand, were named after people called Orr. In that sense they surely belong very much in the article I created? --Mal 23:02, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One geo location, Population 42. :) I am not the boss of you and you don't need to seek my approval. I say history of the group in one place, specimens in the disambig, like the rest of WP. the.crazy.russian (T) (C) (E) 23:12, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No the disambiguation page is only for things known as "Orr" which might therefore be confused. It is not for listing everyone with a particular last name. Rmhermen 23:21, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The MacGregor theory[edit]

My name is Orr and my father told me we're descended from the MacGregors. He said they had a family feud and split into the Macs, the Greggs, and the Orrs. But later a roommate who had grown up in Ireland pointed me to the Jacobite battles and the banning of the name MacGregor that caused them to change their names. I was surprised this was not mentioned on the page but I thought I'd see what others knew first about MacGregor -> Orr. --Sluggoster 21:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My last name is also Orr. I am decended from John Orr who arrived in America in Oct 1749 with his wife Rachael. The info you have is partially correct. Clan Greggor (MacGreggor) was basically banished in 1603 which is 200 yrs before the Jacobite battles you mention. The Orr name itself goes back to approx 1296. It's possible it actually originated in one of the Norse countries (Vikings). Orr was a minor family in Clan Greggor and then joined Clan Campbell after the banishment according to a Campbell historian I spoke to at a clan gathering. SeattleOrr (talk) 03:06, 29 November 2008 (UTC)SeattleOrr[reply]

Can anyone add Frank Orr? (Journalist) --Fangli (talk) 20:32, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]