Devereux is a
Normansurname found frequently in
Ireland,
Wales,
England and around the English-speaking world. Saint Devereux Church in
Hereford, United Kingdom is also named Saint Dubricius and is dedicated to the 6th century clergyman
Saint Dubricius from Hereford,[1][2] suggesting that the name is a
Norman French rendering of Dubricius or the saint's Welsh name Dyfrig.[3] In Ireland, the name is associated with
Wexford, where the
Cambro-Normans first invaded from
Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1170. Devereux is more probably the
Anglo-Norman form of D'Evreux / Devreux, meaning d'Évreux ("from
Évreux", a town in
Normandy, France). Anglo-Norman develops regularly a
svarabakhti vowel /e/ between /v/ and /r/, such as in overi (French ouvrit "opened"), or livere (French livre "book").[4]Dubricius is called Dubrice in French and Dyfrig would have given *Difry / *Dufry in French and *Difery / *Dufery in Anglo-Norman, and St. Devereux is probably a mistranslation after the surname Devereux. The French variant is Devreux, which unlike Devereux is found within Normandy and France themselves.[5]
The similar names Devereaux and Deveraux are alternate spellings of the surname resulting from the various ways of pronouncing it – the placename is pronounced "Dev-ruh" (French pronunciation:[devʁø]), and the surname may be pronounced "Dever-o", "Dever-oo", "Dever-ooks", "Dev-erah", "Dev-rah", "Dev-ruh", or "Dev-rix" (Wexford).
People
Count of Évreux, title of nobility at the origin of the name
Sean Devereux (1964–1993), English-born educator known for his support of food aid in Liberia and opposition to child soldier conscription, and activist in Somalia. Murdered by Somali warlords in 1993.
Walter Devereux (disambiguation) is a name shared by several members of the same family including the 1st Viscount Hereford (c.1490–1558) and the 1st Earl of Essex (1541–1576)
This page lists people with the
surnameDevereux. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.