Avery (surname) explained

Avery
Language:	English
Language origin:	Anglo Norman, Old English, Norman French, French

Avery is an English name ultimately derived from the Old English name Ælfred (Old English form of Alfred),^[1] which literally translates to 'elf-counsel'^[2]

The surname Avery may also be a derivation of the French place name Évreux.

Prevalence in England

In 2014, the name's frequency was highest in Devon (5.9 times the British average), followed by Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Warwickshire, Cornwall and Somerset.^[3]

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Notable people with the name

Activism

Byllye Avery, American health care activist
Greg Avery, British animal rights activist
Rachel Foster Avery, 19th century American suffragist
Rosa Miller Avery (1830–1894), American abolitionist, political reformer, suffragist, writer; mother-in-law of Rachel Foster Avery
John Avery, member of the Loyal 9, member of the Sons of Liberty.

Law and politics

Bill Avery (born 1940), Nebraska politician and professor
Brian Avery (activist), former volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement
Carlos Avery (1868–1930), Minnesota newspaper publisher and politician
Ephraim Kingsbury Avery, Methodist minister accused of an 1832 murder
Isaac E. Avery, Colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War
James Avery (American colonist) (1620–1700), Connecticut colonist, legislator, and military commander
John Avery (politician), physician and politician from Michigan
John Keith Avery, former commissioner of the New South Wales police
Oscar F. Avery (1841–1924), Illinois state senator and lawyer
Steven Avery, American exonerated by DNA evidence for a crime
Waightstill Avery, North Carolina's first attorney general and a colonel during the American Revolutionary War
William H. Avery (politician) (1911–2009), former governor of Kansas
William Tecumsah Avery (1819–1880), former member of the United States House of Representatives

Art and media

Catharine Hitchcock Tilden Avery (1844–1911), American author, editor, educator
Fiona Avery, comic book and television writer
George Avery, American professor of German Studies
Gillian Avery, British children's writer and scholar
Harold Avery, British author of children's literature
Tom Avery, explorer, mountaineer, author, and motivational speaker
Valeen Tippetts Avery, American biographer and historian
Brad Avery, guitarist for the rock band Third Day
Charles Avery (actor) (1873–1926), American silent-film actor, film director, and screenwriter
Charles Avery (artist) (born 1973), Scottish artist from Oban
Charles Avery (pianist) (1892–1974), American blues and boogie-woogie pianist
Dylan Avery, American filmmaker
Eric Avery, original bass player for Jane's Addiction
Jack Avery, member of the American pop band Why Don't We
James Avery (1945–2013), American actor
James Avery (musician) (1937–2009), American and German pianist and conductor
Margaret Avery, American singer and actress
Patricia Avery (1902–1973), American silent film actress
Phyllis Avery, American actress
Shondrella Avery, American actress
Val Avery (1924–2009), American actor
Milton Avery, American Modernist painter
Tex Avery, animator and director; creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
Susanna Avery-Quash (born 1970), an English art historian
Richard Avery born 1947 Actor and director.

Science and engineering

Clarence W. Avery, engineer at Ford Motor Company
John Scales Avery, theoretical chemist and peace activist
Oswald Avery, physician and scientist
R. Stanton Avery, (1907–1997), American inventor
Raymond Avery, New Zealand pharmaceutical scientist, inventor, author and social entrepreneur
Robert Hanneman Avery, founder of the Avery Company, an American farm tractor, truck and automobile manufacturer.
William H. Avery (engineer), aeronautics engineer

Sports

Albert Avery, English rugby league footballer
Donnie Avery (born 1984), American football player
Genard Avery (born 1995), American football player
George Avery Young (1866–1900), English sportsman who played rugby and cricket
Gordon George Avery (1925–2006), Australian track and field athlete
James Avery (baseball) (born 1984) Canadian baseball player
Jim Avery (born 1944), American football player
John Avery (Canadian football), Canadian football player
Ryan Avery (lacrosse), former lacrosse player
Sean Avery (born April 10, 1980), Canadian professional hockey player
Steve Avery, former Major League Baseball pitcher
Tre Avery (born 1997), American football player
William Avery (basketball), professional basketball player
Xavier Avery (born 1990), American baseball player

Other

Bryan Avery, British architect
Clark Moulton Avery (1819–1864), Confederate colonel
Cyrus Avery, American highway commissioner
Henry Every (or Avery), 17th-century pirate
James Avery (Medal of Honor), (1825–1898) Union Navy seaman and recipient of the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War
Peter Avery, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
R. Stanton Avery, founder of Avery Dennison Corporation and namesake of Caltech's Avery House
Samuel Putnam Avery, (1822–1904) American connoisseur and dealer in art
Sewell Avery, U.S. businessman
William Beilby Avery (1854–1908), philatelist
Justice Avery, multiple people

Fictional characters

Avery, a pure-blood wizarding family in the Harry Potter series
Jackson Avery, in the TV series Grey's Anatomy, or his grandfather, Harper Avery
Bree Avery, protagonist of the lonelygirl15 Internet video series
Rupert Avery, a main character in The Serpentwar Saga
Shug Avery, one of the main characters in the 1982 novel The Color Purple
Mr. Avery, a character in the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird
Alice Avery, a character in Virginia Woolf's short story 'A Woman's College from Outside'

Notes and References

Book: Redmonds, George . Christian Names in Local and Family History . 2004-04-13 . Dundurn . 978-1-55488-132-1 . en.
Book: Hanks, Patrick . A Dictionary of First Names . 1991 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-861060-1 . en. .
Web site: Avery Meaning and Distribution . Forebears . 25 January 2014.