Derry Family History

English: variant of Darry from Anglo-French darree ‘pennyworth’ (Old French denree) a nickname for a merchant or tradesman. English: topographic name for someone who lived by or worked in a deer enclosure from Middle English der ‘deer’ (Old English dēor) + hay ‘enclosure’ (Old English (ge)hæg).

English: perhaps from an unrecorded Middle English female personal name Dery Diry possibly representing Old English Dēorgifu from dēore ‘dear’ or dēor ‘animal; violent’ + gifu ‘gift’. Alternatively, the name may be from Middle English diri, a nonsense word.

English: in Devon and Cornwall alternatively a variant of Dear from the Old English personal name Dēora where the unstressed final vowel developed to -y in local dialect.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Doiridh, the name of an ecclesiastical family from Donegal, meaning ‘descendant of Doireadh’. Derry is often confused with Deery.