Burrill

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of English origin used to identify individuals or families; a place name in some English-speaking regions; occasionally used as a given name
2. A family name tracing its roots to English ancestry; denoting geographical locations named Burrill in English contexts; sometimes adopted as a first name
3. An English-derived last name associated with specific lineages; referring to towns or villages bearing this designation; also employed as a personal name occasionally

Etymology: Burrill is an English surname whose origin is not settled. One strand of the evidence points to the Old French "burel," a coarse woollen cloth, which also gave the surname Burrell. Burrill may be a variant of that name, though this link is uncertain. Another possibility is an Old English place-name source, combining "burh," a fortified place or town, with "hill." Surnames of this kind often arose from a place or a trade, and the two explanations are not mutually exclusive, since different families could have taken the name independently. Surnames like this are often recorded in medieval documents in many spellings, such as Burrell, Burrel, and Burrills, so tracing a single line is difficult. The best-known bearer of the name is the American physician Burrill Bernard Crohn, after whom Crohn's disease is named, which gave the surname wider recognition in medicine.