
Origin of the Name Ayers
The ancient history of the name
Ayers was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Meaning 'the son of heir', Ayers is a nickname from a man who was well known to be the heir to a title or a fortune. Variants include Ayer, Ayars, Eyre, Ayris, Ayrs, Air, Eyer, Hayer, Heyer, Ayr and Heir. This name is of Anglo-Saxon descent spreading to the Celtic countries of Ireland , Scotland and Wales in early times and is found in many mediaeval manuscripts throughout these countries. Examples of such are a John filius Aer, who was recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls', England , in the year 1273 and a John Ayer and Alice Moyle, who were granted a marriage license in London, in the year 1582. In Scotland a Robert Air of Hedreslawe was rentaller of the Mill of Hedreslawe in the year 1281. In Ireland the name is found in Galway from 1675 when five of the name were Sheriffs, one of whom was Colonel John Eyre, who built the Castle and village of Eyrecourt. In Ireland Ayers is also sometimes a variant of O'Hehir.
The Ayers coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Ayers descendants.