Family name origins & meanings
- Irish and Manx : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Guaire (see McQuarrie).
- English (of Norman origin) : nickname for a thickset or portly man, from Anglo-Norman French quaré ‘square’. Compare Carré (see Carre).
- English : from Middle English quarey ‘quarry’, a topographic name for someone who lived near a stone quarry, or a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in one.