Shields Family

English: variant of Shield 1 (and perhaps occasionally 2 3 and ) with plural or post-medieval excrescent -s. In the plural form the surname may also be topographic for someone who lived in or near some huts or habitational from a place so named such as North Shields (Northumberland) and South Shields (Durham) though these are unlikely to be the main sources of the surname. Irish: shortened form of O'Shields an alternative Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Siadhail; see Shiel .

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022