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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : apparently a nickname for an active, brisk, or smart person. Although spry is not recorded in OED until the 18th century, it was probably in colloquial use in the West Country dialect and in Scots much earlier. The word is of obscure origin. The surname is found mainly in Devon, but there is also a modest concentration of bearers in northeastern England.

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