Barr Family History

Scottish (Glasgow) and northern Irish (Ulster): habitational name from any of various places in southwestern Scotland, in particular Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, named with Gaelic barr ‘height, hill’ or a Brittonic cognate of this. English and Welsh: habitational name from Great Barr in Staffordshire. This is from Brittonic barro- ‘top, summit’, referring to Barr Beacon; there is evidence that this was known as la Bare in the 13th century.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Barre-en-Ouche in Eure, France, or perhaps from Barre-de-Semilly in Manche, France. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a gateway or barrier from Middle English Old French barre ‘bar, obstruction’. In the English Fenland, bar could denote an obstruction (for example, a weir) in a stream.

English: from the vocabulary word barr ‘bar, pole’, either a metonymic occupational name for a maker of bars or perhaps a nickname for a tall, thin man. Irish: from Ó Bairr, Donegal form of Ó Báire (see Barry).