Devereux is a Norman surname 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]
| Devereux | |
|---|---|
| Current region | Wales, Ireland and England |
| Place of origin | Wales, Herefordshire |
| Connected families | D'Évreux ("of Évreux", France), Devereaux and Deveraux |
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
edit- Count of Évreux, title of nobility at the origin of the name
- Catherine Ann Devereux (1823–1875), American diarist
- Elizabeth Devereux-Rochester (1917–1983), British female spy
- George Devereux (1908–1985), Austro-Hungarian ethnologist and psychoanalyst (born in Lugoj, nowadays part of Romania)
- Helena Devereux (1885–1975), American educator and founder of the Devereux Foundation
- James Devereux (1903–1988), U.S. Marine Corps General and politician
- Jim Devereux (1885–1936), Australian rugby league footballer
- John Devereux (disambiguation)
- Lillie Devereux Blake (1833–1913), American feminist
- Marie Devereux (1940–2019), British actress
- Mary Bayard Devereux (1827–1886), American writer and photographer
- Nicholas Devereux (1791–1855), Irish-American banker, trustee, and western New York landowner
- General Ricardo Wall y Devereux (1694–1777), Spanish General and Prime Minister of the 18th-century
- Richard Devereux (disambiguation)
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565–1601), military hero and royal favourite, executed for treason
- Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (1591–1646), son of Robert Devereux, courtier and soldier
- Robin Devereux, 19th Viscount Hereford (born 1975), an English peer and premier viscount
- 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.
- Colonel Wallace C. Devereux (1893–1952) CBE, F.R.Ae.S., metallurgist and founder of High Duty Alloys Ltd.
- 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)
- William Devereux, Baron Devereux of Lyonshall (c.1244–1314), a Marcher Lord in the time of Edward I and Edward II of England.
Organizations
edit- Devereux Foundation, U.S. non-profit organization founded by Helena Devereux
- Devereux Glenholme School, Connecticut
Places
edit- Devereux (Herefordshire), lost village in the United Kingdom
- Devereux, Georgia, a community in the United States
- Devereux Creek, Queensland, a locality in the Mackay Region, Australia
- St Devereux (Herefordshire), church and parish 6 miles south of Hereford, originally dedicated to the Welsh Saint Dyfrig, Bishop of Ergyng
- Devereux Beach, a beach near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara
See also
edit- Roberto Devereux, tragic opera by Gaetano Donizetti, loosely based on Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
References
edit- ^ "About Us". The Archibishops' Council. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
- ^ "St Dubricius, Gwenddwr". parish.churchinwales.org.uk/. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
- ^ Emanuel, Hywel David. "DYFRIG (DUBRICIUS), saint (fl. 475?)". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
- ^ Jacques Allières, La formation de la langue française, coll. Que sais-je ?, Presses universitaires de France, 1982, p. 121.
- ^ "LA FRANCE DU NOM DE FAMILLE DES DEVREUX en France entre 1891 et 1915".
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