Starr

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, famously carried by the Beatles drummer whose birth name was Richard Starkey
2. A personal name of English origin, used as a surname and occasionally as a first name for both men and women
3. An English family name, best known through the Liverpool-born Beatles drummer who was born Richard Starkey

Etymology: The word "starr" came into English through a legal document trail that begins in Hebrew. Late Latin borrowed "starrum" from the Hebrew "šĕṭār", meaning a written bond or contract, and the term reached English as a name for a deed or bond of obligation. Medieval Jewish moneylenders in England used such bonds, so the word is tied to a specific and often painful chapter of English legal and financial history. The Hebrew root carries the sense of a document or formal writing, which explains why the Latin form kept a meaning centred on written instruments rather than on anything physical. The English word thus records a transfer of legal paperwork across languages, not a transfer of an object.