Burr
A surname with several possible origins, most often linked to a place-name meaning a hill or fortress, and sometimes to a nickname for a rough, blunt person.
The #2,323 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,662 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Burr is an old surname with more than one plausible source. English evidence connects it with place-names from Old English burh, meaning a fort, stronghold, or hill, the same root behind words like borough and burgh. Other writers have treated it as Dutch in origin, and some have also connected it with Middle English words such as borel, meaning plain, rustic, or unpolished, though that is less secure as a direct source for Burr specifically.
History
The name appears in English records and in place-based surname lists from several counties, which fits a locational origin for at least some bearers. It also turns up in Normandy medieval records, showing that short forms like Burr or Burro were not confined to England. In later centuries the surname became well known in the United States through figures such as Aaron Burr.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is old enough to be tied by different scholars both to English hill-fort place-names and to continental forms found in medieval Normandy.
From the historical record
“name. BURR. Said to be of Dutch extrac- tion. BURRELL. Plain, rude, unpolished. ' Borel-clerks,' lay clerks; ' borel-folks,' lay- men. The Franklin m Chaucer says in his prologue — " But, sires, because I am a hovel man, At my beginning first I you heseche”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom