Devereux is a Norman surname found frequently in Ireland, Wales, England and around the English-speaking world. Saint Devereux Church in Hereford, United Kingdom is also named Saint Dubricius and is dedicated to the 6th century clergyman Saint Dubricius from Hereford, suggesting that the name is a Norman French rendering of Dubricius or the saint's Welsh name Dyfrig. 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 ("from Évreux", a town in Normandy, France). Anglo-Norman develops regularly a svarabakhti vowel /e/ between /v/ and /r/, such as in overi (French ouvrit "opened"), or livere (French livre "book"). 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 is Devreux, which unlike Devereux is found within Normandy and France themselves. The similar names Devereaux and Deveraux are alternate spellings of the surname resulting from the various ways of pronouncing it – the placename is pronounced "Dev-ruh", and the surname may be pronounced "Dever-o", "Dever-oo", "Dever-ooks", "Dev-erah", "Dev-rah", "Dev-ruh", or "Dev-rix" (Wexford).

People

Organizations

Places