Berry
Berry is usually a place-based surname, often meaning “someone from a bury/bourg/borough,” though it can also reflect other local place-names.
The #222 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 2,325 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In surname use, Berry is commonly treated as a variant of Bury or Burgh, from Old English burh/burg, meaning a fortified place, town, or borough. The name could therefore describe someone who lived in or came from a borough or fortified settlement. In some cases it may also be connected with local place-names such as Berry in Devon, but the broader surname form is usually explained as a spelling variant of Bury.
History
The surname appears widely in England in medieval and later records, with spellings shifting easily between Berry, Bury, Bery, and similar forms. Because the underlying place-word was common, the surname arose independently in more than one area. The name is now especially familiar in English-speaking countries, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname writers often debated whether Berry was a direct place-name surname or simply another spelling of Bury; Lower explicitly treated it as the latter.
From the historical record
“Gloucester, Salop, Worcest., Hereford, kc. BERRY. A parish in Devon ; but from tlie coimnonness of the name it nuust be regarded as another form of Burj'^, which see. See alsa Burgh. BERTIE. A very pretty tradition brings t\\Q Berties, at the time of the Saxon in- vasion, from Beviiland, in Prussia, toBertie- stad…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom