Newbury (surname)

This article is about Newbury as a surname. For other uses, see Newbury (disambiguation).

Newbury is an English family name. Within the United States, it is the name of 0.001 per cent of the population. Following the 1990 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau ranked the name Newbury as number 16,415 in its list of Frequently Occurring Surnames.^[1]

The name is cognate with the surname Newberry (in 1990 possessed by 0.005 per cent of the U.S. population and ranked number 2,359) and Newbery, which at number 55,231 in the rankings rounded to 0.000 per cent of the U.S. population.^[2]

However, in the United Kingdom Newbury is the more usual spelling, perhaps influenced by the different US and UK pronunciations (see 'Pronunciation', below).

Origin

Newbury/Newberry/Newbery is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means "new stronghold" (from Old English niwe, neowe, new, and buri, byri, fortified place).

In the United Kingdom, one town and a small number of villages have the name Newbury.

However, the name of the hamlet of Newbury in the parish of Horningsham, Wiltshire, is of 17th century origin. It was named for a family called Newbury.

Other spellings of the name include Newborough and Newburgh. In Warwickshire a family called Newborough was granted lands for military service in the Middle Ages.

Pronunciation of Newbury

In the US, the usual pronunciation of the name Newbury is as three quite distinct syllables, as if spelt New-Berry. With the exception of the US region of New England where it is pronounced "Newbry". However, in normal speech in the UK the name's pronunciation (both for places and people) is barely more than two syllables, either as if spelt Newbry or else with a slight uh sound after the -b-.

The same difference can be heard in the US and UK pronunciations of other names ending in -bury, such as Kingsbury, Hanbury, Salisbury, and Westbury.

People named Newbury/Newbery

• Bessie Newbury, Royal Doulton decorator between 1882 and 1922
• Christopher Newbury (born 1956), English politician
• Graham C. Newbury (1910–1986), American Chief Surgeon at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey
  • Jane Cunningham Newbury (1911–2001), psychiatric nurse at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, wife of Graham C. Newbury
  • Newbury Academy, an alternative high school founded in 2001 at Dumont, New Jersey, named for Drs. Graham C. and Jane Cunningham Newbury.
• John Newbery (1713–1767), English publisher and namesake of the literary awards John Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor
• Jack O'Newbury, 15th and 16th century English merchant
• Kris Newbury (born 1982), Canadian ice hockey player
• Madeleine Newbury, English actress
• Milton Sim Newbury, Jr. (1940–2002), American musician and composer

The Newburgh or Newborough family had great land-holdings, granted for military service, in the county of Warwickshire, England, in the Middle Ages.

See Newberry article for people with the surname Newberry.

See also

• Newbury - place name

References

1. ^ ; "Frequently Occurring First Names and Surnames From the 1990 Census, (Table) Name Files dist.all.last"; published May 9, 1995; <http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last>
2. ^ ; "Frequently Occurring First Names and Surnames From the 1990 Census, (Table) Name Files dist.all.last"; published May 9, 1995; <http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last>

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