Devereux

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). Provided by Wikipedia