English

Alternative forms

• Beverley

Proper noun

Beverly

1. An English habitational surname​ and place name.
2. A female given name derived from the surname. Popular in the 1930s to the 1950s in the U.S., partly because of its association with Beverly Hills ( where the stars live).
   • 1904 George Barr McCutcheon: Beverly of Graustark. Kissinger Publishing 2005. ISBN 141793249X page 6:

     Everybody in Washington's social and diplomatic circles admired the beautiful Beverly Calhoun.

   • 1989 Faith Sullivan: The Cape Ann. Penguin 1989. ISBN 0140119795 page 2:

     Mama had chosen the name Lark. - - - Papa had wanted to call me Beverly Mary; Mary after the Blessed Virgin. Mama said she wouldn't hang a name like Beverly Mary on a pet skunk.

3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   • 1984 Louise Erdrich: Love medicine. Bantam Books 1984. ISBN 0553268082 page 74:

     Having a name some people thought of as feminine had turned Beverly Lamartine to building up his muscles in his youth, and they still bulged, hard as ingots in some places, now lost in others.