English: nickname for someone with a blithe or happy
disposition, from Middle English merry ‘lively’, ‘cheerful’
(Old English myr(i)ge ‘pleasant’, ‘agreeable’).
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mearadhaigh, Ó
Meardha ‘descendant of Mearadhach’, ‘descendant of
Meardha’, personal names derived from an adjective meaning
‘lively’, ‘wild’, ‘wanton’.
French: from a vernacular form
of the personal name Médéric, derived from a Germanic
personal name conposed of mecht ‘strength’, ‘might’ +
ric ‘power’; ‘ruler’.
French: habitational name from
Merry in Yonne or Merri in Orne, derived from the Latin personal name
Matrius + the suffix -acum.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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