Last name: BEER

Back
Welcome at Geneanet!

Welcome at Geneanet!

With Geneanet, find your ancestors from home, create your family tree for free, and explore and share your family history. Genealogy has never been easier, thanks to our database of 9 billion individuals, and our community of enthusiasts.

Discover Geneanet

All you have to know about the last name BEER

Last name frequency

BEER : This last name is indexed 306,375 times on Geneanet!

Origin of last name

BEER : 1: English (West Country): habitational name from any of the forty or so places in southwestern England called Beer(e) or Bear(e). Most of these derive their names from the West Saxon dative case beara of Old English bearu ‘grove wood’ (the standard Old English dative bearwe being preserved in Barrow). In some cases the surname may be topographic in origin from atte beare ‘at the grove’. Some may be from Middle English bere ‘woodland swine-pasture’ (Old English bǣr). Compare Bear 1.2: English: variant of Bear 2 ‘bear’.3: North German and Dutch: from Middle Low German bāre Middle Dutch bēre ‘bear’ applied as a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way or as a metonymic occupational name for someone who kept a performing bear (compare 2 above). Alternatively it could have been a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a bear or from an ancient Germanic personal name with this as the first element. See also Baer Bahr.4: Germanized form of Sorbian Běr: from a short form of the Old Sorbian personal name Běrisław (based on the Old Slavic imperative beri ‘collect’).5: Americanized form (translation into English) of German or Jewish (Ashkenazic) Bier or possibly of some other similar (like-sounding) surname.

Learn more

Variants of last name

The spelling of names may have changed over the centuries. Knowing these names variants will help you build your family tree.

Search a name

Discover your ancestors and build your family tree step by step through billions of data included in our members' family trees and through civil records.

Most popular first names

Most indexed places

Most indexed countries

Available collections for this name