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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : regional name for someone from Berry (see Berrier) or from Berrien, in the department of Finistere.
  • The name is borne by a French Huguenot family who fled from religious persecution in France in the 17th century, first to the Netherlands and then to North America. Cornelius Jansen Berrien (died 1689) arrived in Flatbush (now a section of Brooklyn, NY) in 1669. In 1685 he moved to Newtown, Long Island.

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