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 eccesiastical family from Donegal meaning ‘descendant of Doireadh’. Derry is often confused with Deery .

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022