Kemp
Surname Origins?
 English Origin
In old English, a
soldier, one who engaged in single combat. The name Kemp is derived
from the Saxon word to kemp, or combat, which in Norfolk is retained
to this day; a foot-ball match being called a camping or kemping; and
thus in Saxon a Kemper signifies a combatant, a champion, a
man-at-arms. In some parts of Scotland the striving of reapers in the
harvest-field is still called kemping. Kemp, Kempe, Camp:
Edmund Kempe {c1100}; Ralph le Kemp {1296} = Ralph the warrior, OE
cempa, 'warrior' or occasionally 'athlete, wrestler.
Irish Origin
Campbell: Mac
Cathmhaoil. An Irish sept in Tyrone; in Donegal it is usually of
Scottish gallaglass origin, viz. Mac Ailin a branch of the clan
Campbell (whose name is from Campbell, crooked mouth). Many Campbell's
are more recent Scottish immigrants. The name has been abbreviated to
Camp and even Kemp in Co, Cavan.
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