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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire named Bierley, from Old English burh ‘fortified place’ (genitive byrh) + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.
  • German : from a short form of a personal name formed with Old High German bero ‘bear’, or a topographic name from a variant of Middle High German birling ‘hay barn’.

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