Newbury (surname)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about Newbury as a surname. For other uses, see Newbury (disambiguation).

Newbury is an English family name. Within the United States, it is the name of 0.001 per cent of the population. Following the 1990 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau ranked the name Newbury as number 16,415 in its list of Frequently Occurring Surnames.^[1]

The name is cognate with the surname Newberry (in 1990 possessed by 0.005 per cent of the U.S. population and ranked number 2,359) and Newbery, which at number 55,231 in the rankings rounded to 0.000 per cent of the U.S. population.^[2]

However, in the United Kingdom Newbury is the more usual spelling, perhaps influenced by the different US and UK pronunciations (see 'Pronunciation', below).

Contents 1 Origin 2 Pronunciation of Newbury 3 People named Newbury/Newbery 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Origin

Newbury/Newberry/Newbery is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means "new stronghold" (from Old English niwe, neowe, new, and buri, byri, fortified place).

In the United Kingdom, one town and a small number of villages have the name Newbury. The surname evidently originated from the place-names, probably including:

• Newbury, Berkshire
• Newbury, Kent
• Newbury, Mells, Somerset

However, the name of the hamlet of Newbury in the parish of Horningsham, Wiltshire, is of 17th century origin. It was named for a family called Newbury.

[edit] Pronunciation of Newbury

In the US, the usual pronunciation of the name Newbury is as three quite distinct syllables, as if spelt New-Berry. However, in normal speech in the UK the name's pronunciation (both for places and people) is barely more than two syllables, either as if spelt Newbry or else with a slight uh sound after the -b-.

The same difference can be heard in the US and UK pronunciations of other names ending in -bury, such as Kingsbury, Hanbury, Salisbury, and Westbury.

[edit] People named Newbury/Newbery

• John Newbery (1713 – 1767) - English publisher, for whom the John Newbery Medal was named
• Jack O'Newbury - 15th and 16th century English merchant
• Graham C. Newbury (1910 - 1986) USA - Chief Surgeon at Overlook Hospital, Summit, New Jersey; graduate of Yale University School of Medicine. His wife Jane Cunningham Newbury (1911 - 2001) was a psychiatric nurse at Silver Hill Hospital, New Canaan, Connecticut.
• Christopher Newbury (born 1956) - English Politician
• Mickey Newbury (1940 - 2002) (birth name Milton Sim Newbury, Jr.) - U.S. musician and composer
• Madeleine Newbury - English actress

For people named Newberry, see that article.

A family called Newburgh or Newborough had great land-holdings in the county of Warwickshire in the middle ages, granted for military service.

Newbury Academy alternative high school in Dumont, New Jersey, founded in 2001, was named in honor of Dr Graham C. Newbury and his wife Jane Cunningham Newbury.

[edit] See also

• Newbury - place name
• List of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) surnames

[edit] References

1. ^ ; "Frequently Occurring First Names and Surnames From the 1990 Census, (Table) Name Files dist.all.last"; published May 9, 1995; <http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last>
2. ^ ; "Frequently Occurring First Names and Surnames From the 1990 Census, (Table) Name Files dist.all.last"; published May 9, 1995; <http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last>