Beery
A surname that likely began as a nickname for someone with a beery, ale-loving, or tipsy reputation.
The #9,501 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,250 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is most plausibly from English beery, meaning “beer-like,” “of beer,” or by extension “fond of beer” or “drunk.” In older nickname-based surname formation, such words were often applied to a person’s habits or reputation and then inherited by descendants. The excerpt you provided treats Beery alongside other terms for drunkenness, which fits this interpretation.
History
Because the only excerpt is an incidental mention, there is no solid historical trail here beyond the likely nickname sense. Surnames of this type were common in English-speaking areas and could be adopted independently by more than one family. Modern bearers are found chiefly in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
English also has the word beery as a descriptive adjective, so the surname may have sounded amusingly direct even in older times.
From the historical record
“Piggish, Nasty, Lousey, Foul, Smutty, Lettd, Bawdy^Viprous. Thirsty, Beery, Bockstruck,t Vinose, Winoy, Boozy, Grog- ga (?), Tight, Reeling, Maudlin, Funiy, Rumsick, Sodden, Drunk. (Names denoting Corporeal Development.)”
— A Grammar of American SurnamesNotable people named Beery
- Wallace Beery (1885–1949)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.