Barrie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A city on the shore of Lake Simcoe in the Canadian province of Ontario ; the Scottish playwright and novelist who created the boy who never grows up
2. A lakeside community in southern Ontario, Canada ; the Scottish writer best known for the stage play and novel about Peter Pan
3. A town in Ontario, Canada, near Georgian Bay ; a Scottish dramatist and novelist famous for creating the character Peter Pan

Etymology: Barrie is a Scottish surname, and its most famous bearer is the playwright J. M. Barrie, who was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, in 1860 and created Peter Pan. The name is probably a variant of "Barry," which in turn is most often linked to the Scottish place name Barry in Angus, though the exact route from place to family name is uncertain. Some sources connect the older forms to the Gaelic "barr," meaning "top" or "summit," but this is not firmly established. Because the name has spread across the English-speaking world with Scottish emigration, it also appears as a place name. The Canadian city of Barrie, Ontario, takes its name from the surname, and the town was named in honour of a British naval figure rather than from any geographic feature. The surname's spelling and its use as a given name have both been shaped more by these later associations than by any single medieval origin.