Warr
A name that most likely began as a local surname for someone living by a weir or similar water barrier.
The #9,968 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,410 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually treated as coming from an old topographical word for a weir, wear, or water dam. In that sense, Warr would have marked someone who lived near such a feature. Some older writers also connected it with place-names such as Ware, but the weir explanation is the main one given in the historical surname literature.
History
The surname appears in medieval records in forms such as de la Ware and atte Warr, showing its early use as a local byname. Later spellings varied between Ware, Warr, and Warre, and the name remained in England before also appearing in emigration records to North America and the Caribbean. The related De la Warr family later gave their name to the title Earl De la Warr.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The famous title De la Warr preserves an older surname form that is historically linked to the same family name group.
From the historical record
“W for G. WARR. WARRE. War appears to be an obsolete topographical word, of uncer- tain meaning. It was formerly prefixed by the particles De la, as in the ancient family De la AVarr, whose heiress married, in the XV. cent., West, the lineal ancestor of the Earl De la Warr. WARREN. William de Warene, ov Warrena, who…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom