Recorded in several forms including Kinnar, Kinner, and the more usual Kinnear, this is a Scottish surname is of early medieval origin. It is locational from the place called Kinneir in the county of Fife near the village of Wormit. The place name is first recorded at the beginning of the 13th cntury as "Kyner", from the Gaelic word "ceann", meaning head(land) and "iar", to the west. The original family who took the name were vassals of the priory of St. Andrews, and held their lands until the beginning of the 18th century. One Petrus Kynior was elected common councillor of Aberdeen in 1477, and John de Kynor was admitted burgess of Aberdeen in 1439. Henry Kinneir of Kinneir was appointed "commendator" of Balmerino Abbey in 1574. Thomas Kinnear and Elisabeth Mason were married in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, on September 28th 1780. One James Kinner, aged 38 yrs., together with his wife Margaret, aged 28 yrs., daughter Julia, aged 5 yrs., and son Edward, aged 2 yrs., were famine emigrants who sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Columbia" bound for New York on July 31st 1846. A Coat of Arms granted to a Kinnear family is black, on a gold bend, three canary birds proper. The Crest is two anchors saltireways proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Symon de Kyner, which was dated 1216, in the "Records of the Priory of St. Andrews", Fife, during the reign of King Alexander 11 of Scotland, 1214 - 1249. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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