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The beaver Surname

beaver Name Meaning and History

  1. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of several places in France called Beauvoir, for example in Manche, Somme, and Seine-Maritime, or from Belvoir in Leicestershire. All of these are named with Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + veïr, voir ‘to see’, i.e. a place with a fine view.
  2. English: nickname from Middle English bevere, Old English beofor ‘beaver’, possibly referring to a hard worker, or from some other fancied resemblance to the animal. The existence of patronymic forms such as Beaverson suggest that this may also have been a personal name.
  3. Probably a translation of cognates of 2 in other languages, in particular Dutch Bever and German Bieber.
  4. Possibly a variant of Welsh Bevan.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The beaver name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the beaver family name as far back in history as possible.

beaver Family Facts

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Distribution of beaver Families in the US in 1920
Number of beaver families
 180-357
 61-179		 1-60
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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