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ArchivesRe: Celtic christian name ?
in reply to a message by Beverley
Just click on the link in your own post, or click here: Beverley.
I can give you a little information that is not in the database, however it mostly amounts to negations of what is in your post.
The name Beverley is not Celtic, in any way, shape or form. It is a typical Old English *place* name, containing two word parts - bever, meaning 'beaver', and ley, which according to BtN stands for 'stream', although I would disagree and say that it is from legh meaning 'meadow' (as in Ashley, 'ash meadow'). The original Beverley will have been a place where there was a stream and/or meadow inhabited by beavers.
A date from 700 AD is highly unlikely. As it is an Old English name, it will have arisen as a place name somewhere between the 5th and 12th centuries AD. I can find no record of it being used as a personal name (male or female) up to the 17th century, so it is unlikely to have been used as a personal name prior to 1700. There is a short gap in my searchable resources from 1700 onwards, but I have found plenty of references to children named Beverley in the 1800s, so it was clearly established as a personal first name at that point. I haven't been able to turn up any data on Beverley as a surname, but I am sure it was used as a surname before it was used as a first name.
For more information on the origins of Beverley, check here: http://www.answers.com/beverley
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
I can give you a little information that is not in the database, however it mostly amounts to negations of what is in your post.
The name Beverley is not Celtic, in any way, shape or form. It is a typical Old English *place* name, containing two word parts - bever, meaning 'beaver', and ley, which according to BtN stands for 'stream', although I would disagree and say that it is from legh meaning 'meadow' (as in Ashley, 'ash meadow'). The original Beverley will have been a place where there was a stream and/or meadow inhabited by beavers.
A date from 700 AD is highly unlikely. As it is an Old English name, it will have arisen as a place name somewhere between the 5th and 12th centuries AD. I can find no record of it being used as a personal name (male or female) up to the 17th century, so it is unlikely to have been used as a personal name prior to 1700. There is a short gap in my searchable resources from 1700 onwards, but I have found plenty of references to children named Beverley in the 1800s, so it was clearly established as a personal first name at that point. I haven't been able to turn up any data on Beverley as a surname, but I am sure it was used as a surname before it was used as a first name.
For more information on the origins of Beverley, check here: http://www.answers.com/beverley
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
This message was edited 7/21/2005, 6:21 AM
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