Dear Family History

from the Middle English personal name Dere, Old English Deora, in part a short form of various compound names formed with deore ‘dear’, in part a byname meaning ‘beloved’, or deor ‘brave’, ‘bold’. nickname from Middle English dere, Old English deor ‘wild animal’, or from the adjective of the same form, meaning ‘wild’, ‘fierce’. By the Middle English period the adjective was falling out of use, and the noun was beginning to be restricted to the sense of modern English deer, so that this may be the sense behind the surname in some cases.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press