Downes
DOWNES is an English topographical surname, meaning 'one who lives by the downs' - from the Old English word 'dun' meaning 'down, hill or mountain'. The word 'dun' is of Celtic origin. Early forms included Thomas de la Duna (1170), John atte Doune (1296), William Bythedoune (1327) and Reginald del Downes (1407 Cheshire). John Downes the Regicide (of the Cheshire Downes) sat for Arundel in the Long Parliament of 1642 and was one of those who signed Charles I's death-warrant. http://johndownesregicide.hpage.com/
There is a long history of the Downes of Downes & Taxal, said originally to be foresters from the Goyt Valley in England’s Peak District. There is a memorial window in Taxal church to William Downes, 1st Rector of the parish in 1287.
DOWNES in Irish is Dubh-ain, the dark one. The places in Ireland where Downes are most numerous were towns settled by the Vikings - Dublin, Cork and Limerick. The Chester area, where the name is mentioned earliest in England, was in the Danelaw or Danelagh and was the chief trading port with Ireland - most particularly with Dublin, then one of the wealthiest Viking towns. North County Dublin – now Fingal (from Irish: Fine Gall meaning "foreign tribe") – was held by various Gaelic chieftains until the arrival of the Vikings in the 8th century. Fingalian, a West Germanic dialect descended from the Middle English introduced after the Norman invasion of Ireland, was spoken by the people of Fingal until the mid-19th century. Now extinct, it was similar to the Yola language spoken in Wexford.
Daniel
The DANIEL surname is believed to have been taken from the prophet Daniel. The oldest Daniel surname in the West is Daniel of Padua (†168 AD), the first bishop of Padua who is believed to have been of Jewish extraction. The surnames Daniel and Danieli still exist in that region. The name was probably introduced into Southeast France in the 2nd century AD, and Cornwall and South Wales three centuries later. There are about 20,000 people with the name Daniel in France today, the vast majority in Brittany and Normandy. Daniell is one of the names inscribed on a plaque at the Huguenot cemetery in Merrion Street, Dublin.
Keyes
KEYES may originate from the French quai (a dock or platform). First records of the name show up in Yorkshire (Domesday Book) and was said to belong to an ‘ancient’ family. There is some evidence to suggest that the name’s roots might be Scandinavian. By the mid-1600s, the name was most commonly found in the West of Ireland and Ulster.
Lacy
LACY: of French origin, from Lassy in the Calvados county of Normandy. The family took a major role in the Norman conquest of England, before being sent to tame Ireland.