Spry
A Cornish surname, probably from a word meaning a shoot, sprig, or branch, later also associated with being lively or nimble.
The #8,398 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 78,362 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually explained from Cornish spry/sprey/spray, a word glossed by older writers as meaning a sprout, branch, sprig, or slip. That makes it a descriptive or perhaps topographic name tied to plant growth, though some later writers also connected it with the English adjective spry, 'nimble' or 'active.' The older Cornish derivation is the main one given in the historical surname literature.
History
Historical sources place the family early in Devon and Cornwall, with spellings such as De Spre, Sprey, Sprie, and Spray. The name is especially associated with the West Country, and some place-names like Spreyton were cited as related forms. Later writers also noted that Spry survives as a word for being brisk or lively, which may have encouraged the surname’s interpretation, though not necessarily its origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books even quoted the playful phrase 'from the pyes and the spuyers, good Lord deliver us' while discussing this name.
From the historical record
“which see. SPRY. "The name of Spry, Sprey, Spray, is Cornish, and signifies a sprout, branch, sprig, or slip of any matter or thing." Hals, in D. Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 29, — a very wide etymology. In the dialect of Somerset, and in the United States, ' sp?"y ' means nimble, active, smart. FROM THE PYES AND THE…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom