Barr
A surname that can come from a place-name, a gateway or barrier, or a byname meaning “bear” or “boar.”
The #781 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,996 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one likely source. In English records it can be locational, referring to someone from a place called Barr or La Barre, or from a “bar” or gateway at the entrance to a fortified town. Some writers also treated it as an old byname from the Old English word for “bear” or “boar,” though that is less certain.
History
Medieval records show forms such as de la Barre and atte Barr, which support a locational or topographic origin in England. The name also appears in Scotland and in Norman-French place-name forms, so more than one family line may have adopted it independently. Later spellings and related surnames such as Barrett and Barre sometimes overlapped in older sources.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname books linked Barr to the old word for a town gate or barrier, not just to a place-name.
From the historical record
“ships CO. York are called Barugh. BARR. 1 . A parish and a hamlet in co. Stafford; also a parish in Ayrshire. 2. The gateway of a fortified town. 3. A pre- Domesd. name Bar, meaning probably either A-Sax. bar, bear, or bar, boar — a sobriquet. De la Bare. H.E. B ARRATT. The same as Barrett, wliich see. One family…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom