Caimbéal

Rev Patrick Woulfe
1923

CAIMBÉAL—XII—Cambell, Campbell, etc.; Irish 'cam' and 'béal,' i.e., wry-mouthed, originally an epithet or nickname which in course of time supplanted the real surname; not from Norman 'de Campobello,' as some have imagined. The original surname is said to have been Ó Duibhne. Sir Colin Mór Caimbéal, lord of Lochawe, who was knighted by Alexander III, and from whom the Duke of Argyll derives the title of Mac Cailean Mór by which he is known in the Highlands to the present day, was the seventh in descent from Duibhne, the ancestor from whom the family took their original surname of Ó Duibhne. The Campbells were long the most formidable of the Scottish clans, and the name is now one of the most numerous in Scotland.

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