ARDIST: Ada de Ardist who witnessed a charter by Hugo de Nidtn of lands in Fife, c. 1204—28, and the gift by Henry Reuel and Margaret his spouse to the prior and canons of St. Andrews in the early part of the thirteenth century (SHSM., IV, p. 312; RPSA., p. 271), derived his name from the lands of Ardist in Balmerino parish, a now forgotten place name, (In RPSA. the name has been miscopied as Ardift.) Alexander de Ardist, another charter witness in Fife appears c. 1245 (RPSA, p. 44,282, 283,293). The name of Derlig de Arfdift who witnessed a gift by Duncan, earl of Fife to the nuns of North Berwick a. 1177 (CMN., p. 6) may be a misspelling of Ardist, the long s being misread f). Ardist may have been merely a variation of the name Ardint; or, though less probably, it may have denoted a place so-called in Leuchars parish, and now known as Airdit (Campbell, Balmerino, p. 58).