Devereux

Devereux is a Norman surname found frequently in Ireland, Wales, England and around the English-speaking world. The name may derive as a Norman French rendering of the Welsh name "Dyfrig" or "Dubricius"^{[dubious – discuss]}. This name would have been familiar to the Norman and Breton elites via Saint Dubricius, an important 6th century clergyman who ordained Samson of Dol^{[dubious – discuss]}. The parish of St. Devereux (Archenfield) still bares this Norman version of the name.^[1][2] 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" or "from Évreux", a town in Normandy, France. Anglo-Norman develops regularly a svarabakhti vowel /e/ between /v/ and /r/ such as in AN overi / F ouvrit "opened", AN livere / F livre "book", etc.^[3]. 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 Devreux which unlike Devereux is found within Normandy and France themselves.^[4]

The similar names Devereaux and Deveraux are alternate spellings of the surname resulting from the various ways of pronouncing it - the placename is pronounced "Ev-ruh" (French pronunciation: ​[evʁø]) and the surname may be pronounced Dever-o, Dever-oo, Dever-ooks, Dev-erah, Dev-rah, Dev-ruh, or Dev-rix (Wexford).

People[]

• Count of Évreux, title of nobility at the origin of the name
• 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
• 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.
• (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[]

• The Devereux Foundation, U.S. non-profit organization founded by Helena Devereux
• Devereux Glenholme School, Connecticut

Places[]

• Devereux (Herefordshire), lost village in the United Kingdom
• Devereux, Georgia, a community in the United States
• Devereux Creek, Queensland, a small locality on the east coast of Australia
• , church and parish 6 miles south of Hereford, originally dedicated to the Welsh Saint Dyfrig, Bishop of Ergyng

See also[]

• Roberto Devereux, tragic opera by Gaetano Donizetti, loosely based on Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

References[]

Surname list

This page lists people with the surname Devereux.
If an intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.