Ormeau Road takes its name from Ormeau House which was built between 1823 and 1830 for the second Marquess of Donegall, George Augustus Chichester. It was designed by William Vitruvius Morrison (1794-1838) in the Tudor Revival style (like the Lanyon Building at QUB, for example). Ormeau is a French word, a derivative of orme, 'elm', meaning 'young elm'. It occurs in the plural, Ormeaux, as the name of a village south-east of Paris. This also appears as a suffix in a number of French place-names, such as Savignac-les-Ormeaux, a rural commune in the Pyrenees.
The construction of the house was shrouded in some secrecy as the Marquess, who had been in debt for decades, had borrowed money on the pretext of paying off his debts, but actually ploughed it into this project. He would almost certainly have been an absentee landlord to his Belfast tenants, but for the fact that he could not afford to live in Britain because of being pursued by his creditors. In 1802 he moved with his family from England to Belfast, first to Donegall House on what is now Donegall Place. After their furniture was repossesed, they moved to Ormeau Cottage and then had Ormeau House built. After his death in 1844, the contents of the house were sold in 1857 by his son, the 3rd Marquess, in order to actually clear some debts, and the estate was finally sold in 1869 to Belfast Corporation. The house was demolished and the grounds were converted into a public park, Ormeau Park.
"The first notice of the name occurs on Williamson's Map of Belfast, 1791, whereon is marked "Ormeau, Mr. Kingsmill". This Mr. Kingsmill in addition to being a storekeeper and surveyor of the Port, was also agent to the Marquis of Donegall for his Irish estates. The Kingsmill family retained Ormeau Cottage, for such the residence was named, till the end of 1803, when it came into the hands of the Marquis of Donegall, who, after making alterations and extensions to accommodate his extensive menage, removed there about 1807. In the eighteenth century, before the present road was made, it was known as the "Long Pass", "to distinguish it from the other "passes". It stopped short somewhere near Essex Street". (John J. Marshall, Belfast Telegraph, 03/02/1941).
However, W A Maguire describes Mr Kingsmill as the agent of Lord Dungannon, who resided at Belvoir (and Islandmagee), but suggests that he leased the property from the 1st Marquess of Donegall. He was originally Edward Brice, but changed his name to Kingsmill for the purpose of an inheritance. He died in 1796, but his daughter and son-in-law, Captain Skinner, continued to live there until 1803, when they gave up the lease (Maguire, "Ormeau House", UJA, 1980, p. 67).
Records relating to the royal licence to change surname: 8 Jan 1788: Grant to Edward Brice Kingsmill, principal surveyor of the Revenue in the Port of Belfast, that he may take and use the surname and bear the arms of Kingsmill, at the request of his younger brother, Robert Kingsmill, 1st Baronet.
Edward Kingsmill, Port Surveyor of Belfast and Store Keeper at the Port, and brother of Admiral Kingsmill, died in Jul 1796. He died at Castle Chichester as reported in the Belfast News-Letter on 8 Jul 1796 (information from Wiki-Tree). Timothy Belmont states that his son, Sir Robert Kingsmill, was agent for the Marquess of Donegall (presumably the 2nd Marquess), which, if true, would account for Marshall's error as confusion of father with son.
The fact that the name Ormeau is recorded so early, some forty years before the completion of the house for the 2nd Marquess is interesting. It seems that the name was given in the time of the 1st Marquess. Maguire suggests that Kingsmill coined the name: "Ormeau…meaning in French a young elm tree, it was evidently chosen by Kingsmill as suitably fashionable for the country estate that he created out of the scattered smallholdings which had been there previously" (Maguire, "A Resident Landlord in His Local Setting — the Second Marquis of Donegall at Ormeau, 1807-1844", PRIA, 1983, p. 379). That Kingsmill gave the name Ormeau is possible but not proven, and it may rather have been coined by the owner prior to this lease. The name is very apt for a cottage in a woodland setting, and some of this woodland remains today in Ormeau Park, as Mary Lowry commented over a century ago: "Ormeau was built after the Castle in Castle Place was destroyed by fire. It was once a fine house beautifully situated on the bank of the Lagan, with spacious grounds and gardens, and some of the old trees now in Ormeau Park may have then been the 'young elms' that gave it the name of Ormeau" (Lowry, The Story of Belfast and Its Surroundings, 1913).
Henderson’s New Belfast Directory And Northern Repository for 1843-1844 contains several references to people living on the Ormeau Road. This may be the earliest occurrence of the road-name.
Part of the Ormeau Road was previously called Ballynafeigh or Ballynafoy Road New.
“On the application of the owners of property it was resolved that the following names for new streets be approved of:...That Mr. David Coates be informed that the Committee cannot see their way to approve of the name ‘Eyre Street’ for a new street on his property at Ormeau Road and request him to submit another name therefor.” (11th April 1894).
"Resolved — That Mr. James M‘Burney, of 133 Royal Avenue, be requested, on behalf of the owners of property, to submit another name instead of Mountview Gardens for the new street off Ormeau Road, as there is a Mountview Street in another part of the City". (25th May 1898).