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,[1][2] suggesting that the name is a Norman French rendering of Dubricius or the saint's Welsh name Dyfrig.[3] 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").[4] 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.[5]

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" (French pronunciation: [devʁø]), and the surname may be pronounced "Dever-o", "Dever-oo", "Dever-ooks", "Dev-erah", "Dev-rah", "Dev-ruh", or "Dev-rix" (Wexford).