Beverley

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A market town in the East Riding of Yorkshire in northern England ; a personal first name given to a girl or a boy
2. An English market town located in East Yorkshire ; a first name used for both women and men
3. The historic town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England ; a personal name given to a child at birth

Etymology: The name "Beverley" comes from two Old English elements: "befer", meaning "beaver", and "lēah", meaning "clearing" or "meadow". Put together, the name describes a clearing where beavers lived, a place-name that records an animal that has long since vanished from most of England's rivers. The "-ley" ending is the same "lēah" that appears in countless English place-names, such as Ashley or Hadley, where it marks a woodland clearing or open pasture. Because the name is built from a common animal and a common landscape feature, it reads more like a description of a spot than an invented title. Beverley is best known today as the name of a Yorkshire market town, and as a given name it has been used for people of either sex. The meaning of the name itself is the most interesting part: it preserves an old record of beavers in the English landscape long before the word "beaver" became an ordinary household term.