Burroughs
A surname from the old word for a fortified town or borough, originally marking someone who lived in or came from such a place.
The #2,087 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,810 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Burroughs is a spelling family of the older surname Burgh/Burrough, ultimately from Old English burh, meaning a fortified place, town, or borough. Through medieval French and Middle English forms, this became a common place-based surname for someone who lived in or near a borough or came from a place called Burgh, Bury, or something similar. The final -s may reflect a plural form, a possessive sense, or later spelling variation rather than a separate meaning.
History
19th-century surname writers regularly grouped Burroughs with Burgh, Burrows, and related forms, treating them as variant spellings of the same core name. In Scotland and Ireland, cognate forms were often linked with Norman De Bourg/De Burgh and the later Burke/Bourke tradition, while in England the name remained a common local topographic or habitational surname. The spelling Burroughs became established in English and American records, alongside Burrough, Burrows, and Burrowes.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname indexes often treat Burroughs and Burrows as interchangeable spellings of the same underlying name.
From the historical record
“still locally so pronounced. BURROUGHS. See Burgh. BURRO WES. See Burgh. BURROWS. See Burgh. BURSLEM. A town in StafTordshire. BURST ALL. Parishes in cos. York and Suffolk. BURSTER. A corruption of Biirstow,”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Burroughs
- Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950)
- William S. Burroughs (1914–1997)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.