Dewberry
An English surname most likely taken from Dewsbury, a place-name in Yorkshire.
The #8,361 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,966 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally treated as a locational name, probably referring to Dewsbury in Yorkshire. The place-name is ancient and was recorded in early medieval forms such as Deubire; its deeper elements are Old English, though the exact development is not certain from the excerpts alone. The family name would originally have identified someone as coming from that place.
History
The name appears to have remained quite uncommon, which fits the small modern bearer count. The excerpted sources treat it as a place-based surname rather than a berry-name surname, despite the misleading modern spelling. Because the surname is rare, it is likely to have arisen independently in limited local lines rather than spreading widely.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Despite looking like the name of a fruit, the surname is not usually explained from dew or berries at all, but from a Yorkshire place-name.
From the historical record
“simply the French name Philibert [Dominus Fylbard, Hund. R.], OG. Filuberht, very bright, whence the nut also probably takes its name.4 Dewberry is local, of Dewsbury, spelt Deubire in 1202, but Mulberry, 1 The older form of cherry, Fr. cerise. The -s has been lost through being taken as the sign of the plural, as…”
— Surnames