Family name origins & meanings
- Northern English, Scottish, and northern Irish : from the Old Norse byname Orri ‘blackcock’ (the male black grouse).
- Scottish : nickname for someone with a sallow complexion, from Gaelic odhar ‘pale’, ‘dun’.
- English : topographic name for someone who lived on a shore or ridge, from Old English ōra ‘shore’, ‘hill-slope’, ‘flat-topped ridge’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word (see Ore).