Beaver
A surname that can come either from a place-name linked to Beauvoir/Beauver or from a nickname based on the animal beaver.
The #1,665 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,267 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained in two ways. Some bearers likely got the name from a Norman French place-name, especially forms like de Beauvoir or de Beauver, which were later simplified in English. Others may have received it as a nickname from the beaver, the animal, either directly or through an old personal-name form related to that word.
History
The historical record shows both spellings and both explanations, so the surname may not have a single origin. English registers preserve early forms such as Bever, Beever, and Beaver, and nineteenth-century surname writers noted both a locational and a nickname source. In Ireland, some families with this name were said to share a common stock, but that tradition is not enough to settle the etymology for all branches.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century writer explicitly linked Beaver both to a Norman place-name and to the animal nickname, showing how mixed surname origins can be.
From the historical record
“Bevan. BEAVER. See Beauvolr. BE AVIS. See Bevis. BECCLES. A town In Suffolk. De Beckles, H.R. BECK. BECKE. Teutonic hecc. A rivulet or small stream, in various dialects of England. Bee in Normandy gave name to a baronial race, and a Flemish family of Bee, wholly unconnected with them, held”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom