Barry Family History
Barry Name Meaning
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Beargha ‘descendant of Beargh’ a byname meaning ‘plunderer’. Irish and Manx: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Báire ‘descendant of Báire’ a short form of either of two Gaelic personal names Bairrfhionn or Fionnbharr both meaning ‘fair-topped’. This may also be the source of the Manx name Barry whose family's main seat was Ballavarry in Kirk Andreas. English Welsh and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name which according to the Anglo-Norman chronicler Gerald de Barry (Giraldus Cambrensis) refers to the Island of Barry opposite the town of Barry (Glamorgan) owned by the Barry family by gift of William the Conqueror. In Ireland the surname mostly goes back to another member of the family Philip de Barry who took part in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. His son William de Barry was granted baronies in South Munster by King John and his principal seat was Castlelyons (Cork). Derivation from one of the French hamlets called Barri is unlikely since they all occur in southern France far from spheres of Norman influence. English: nickname from Old French barré Anglo-Norman French barri ‘striped’ probably in reference to striped clothing or to a piece of horizontally striped cloth worn around the helmet for identification in battle. The term barry came to be used in heraldry for a field horizontally divided by strips of alternating color. Scottish: variant of Barrie . French: topographic name from Occitan barri ‘part of a town outside its walls’ or a habitational name from any of hamlets called Barri in southern France named with the same word. Compare Bary 2 and Dubarry .7: Altered form of French Baril and Barré (see Barre 3 and ). Compare Barrie 3 Bary 3 and Berry 7.8: Walloon and northern French: habitational name from Barry in Wallonia (Belgium). This surname is also found in the Flemish part of Belgium. Compare Bary 9: West African (mainly Guinea and Burkina Faso): from the name of the Barry clan of the Fulani people of unexplained etymology.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
