Beverly
A surname taken from the English place name Beverley, Yorkshire, originally referring to the town itself.
The #2,992 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,776 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Beverly is a locational surname from Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The place name is usually explained as coming from Old English elements meaning “beaver” and “clearing” or “meadow,” though older writers also associated it with a “beautiful place” or with beavers in the river. In surname use, it simply meant a person who came from Beverley or had some connection with that town.
History
The surname appears in English records as a place-derived byname and later spread to North America through English migration. Historical sources show both the spellings Beverley and Beverly, with the shorter form becoming common in the United States. The name has also been carried by well-known Americans, which helped keep it in use as a given name and surname alike.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Beverley is one of those surnames that can also feel like a first name, which helped it become fairly familiar in the United States.
From the historical record
“A town located on a hill. BEVERLY. Local From the borough of Beverly in York- shire, England ; from Belvoir, a beautiful prospect, and ley, a place or field. Some say "the lake of beavers," from Beverlac, and so called from the beavers which abounded in the river Hull, near by. BEWLEY. A corruption of the French…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names