I have just completed a book entitled "The Rudds of Marton" (my ancestors). In order to complete a chapter on the origins of my Rudd bunch, I wrote to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagento see if they had anything. They sent me back some photocopies of old books written in Danish - mostly telling of the exploits of various Ruds but a couple of bits about the origins which I have had translated. Basically it says that the name Rud is from old nobility with close links to the Western Zealand area. It goes on to say that the family bore a permanent surname from the 14th century and possibly even earlier, as the name is probably the point of origin of the rhomboid bearing of the coat of arms (a picture of the coat of arms was sent me). My book states that Rudds have been traced back to the early 11th Century in Ireland but there is nothing to suggest that this is where the name originated. The Danes had begun to settle on the shores of Ireland at least from the 8th Century and even earlier in England. The translation of the Danish Rud is red, ruddy or fierce and bloody. Further info from Denmark says that the ancient Zealand had its family name by the 14th century but whether this has been chosen after the family's ancient bearing, a silver lozenge in a blue field, or whether the name has motivated the choice of the bearing, it is impossible to say. Whether these Ruds are connected with the Rudds of Great Britian in any way is also impossible to say. Beryl