English: habitational name from the city of Derby, the county
seat of Derbyshire, but also from the much smaller place called West
Derby in Lancashire. Both are named from Old Norse djúr
‘deer’ + býr ‘farm’, ‘settlement’. The usual spelling of the
surname represents the pronunciation of both the place name and the
surname.Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó
Diarmada (or Mac Diarmada) ‘descendant (or ‘son’) of
Diarmaid’, a personal name meaning ‘freeman’. See also
Dermott, Macdermott. Insofar as Gaelic Ó
Duibhdhiormaigh was sometimes reinterpreted as Ó
Diarmada, Darby could also be an Anglicization of this name
too. The English surname is also established in Ireland, having been
taken to County Leix in the 16th century.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
555,627
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Darby
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