Family name origins & meanings
- English : topographic name from Middle English atte bery. This generally denoted a servant ‘at the manor house’, but the Middle English word bery also meant ‘castle’ or ‘stronghold’. In form it is from Old English byrig, dative singular of burh ‘fortress’ or ‘fortified town’. (The nominative case gave rise to the Middle English word burgh ‘borough’, ‘town’; compare Burroughs and Bury.)