Beryl (given name)
Beryl is a given name that has overwhelmingly been borne by females with reference to the mineral beryl. It is deemed unisex due to occasional American usage as a male name, likely a variant spelling of the surname Burrell whose seeming root is the Old French bovre, a reddish-brown woolen fabric with the resultant name denoting a worker in the wool trade; Beryl may also be a variant spelling of the Yiddish (Judeo-German) male name Berel.
Gender | Unisex |
---|---|
Origin | |
Word/name | (female) Greek |
Like most jewel names, Beryl's use as a female name dates from the late 19th-century: dancer Beryl de Zoete and actress Beryl Mercer would have been among the earliest namesakes being born respectively in 1879 and 1882. The female name Beryl was always more popular in the British Isles than in North America; since the mid-20th century the name has become somewhat unfashionable in the British Isles.
Females
Females named Beryl include:
- Claire Adams (née Beryl Vere Nassau Adams), actress and benefactor
- Berle Adams (born Beryl Adasky), music industry executive and talent booking agent
- Beryl T. (Sue) Atkins, British lexicographer
- Beryl Bainbridge, novelist
- Beryl Baxter (née M. Ivory), actress
- Dame Beryl Edith Beaurepaire, feminist
- Beryl Bernay, journalist, painter, and photographer
- Beryl Bender Birch, yoga teacher
- Beryl Booker, pianist
- Beryl Brewin (1910 – 1999), New Zealand marine zoologist
- Dame Beryl Paston Brown, academic and teacher
- Beryl Annear Bryant, actress and theatrical producer
- Beryl Audley Bryden, jazz singer
- Beryl Burton, racing cyclist
- Beryl W. Chan, wife of Gerald Chan
- Beryl Christie, mother of Donald J. Harris
- Beryl Cook, artist best known for her paintings
- Beryl Cooke, actress
- Beryl Dorothy Corner, doctor
- Beryl Crockford (formerly Mitchell; née Martin), rower
- Beryl Mildred Cryer, writer
- Beryl Cunningham, actress and model
- Beryl Davis, jazz singer
- Beryl Dean, religious embroidery
- Beryl Drusilla de Zoete, ballet dancer
- Beryl May Dent, mathematical physicist, technical librarian, and programmer
- Beryl Killeen Donkin, legal secretary
- Beryl-Adolphs Nalowa Esembe, sociologist and anthropologist
- Beryl Alice Evans (née Williams), politician
- Beryl Evans, murder victim by John Christie
- Beryl Evans, actress, wife of Frank Thornton
- Beryl Joan Fletcher, feminist author
- Beryl Fox, documentary film director and producer
- Beryl Gaffney, politician
- Béryl Émilie Paulette Gastaldello, swimmer
- Beryl Agatha Gilroy (née Answick), novelist and teacher
- Beryl Goldwyn Karney, ballet dancer
- Beryl Cynthia Gordon, wife of Harry Bloom
- Beryl Grant, nurse, community worker, and public servant
- Dame Beryl Elizabeth Grey, ballet dancer
- Beryl Deane Harrell, musician (guitarist)
- Beryl "Beb" Hearnden, farmer, journalist, and author
- Beryl D. Hines, Cold War-era journalist and aunt of Amy Brenneman
- Beryl Alaine Howell, judge
- Beryl Hutchinson, British volunteer ambulance driver and officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
- Beryl Ingham, dancer and actress
- Beryl Elaine Jacka, administrator
- Beryl Lillian Jones (née Davies), politician
- Beryl Koltz, film director
- Beryl Korot, video artist
- Béryl Laramé, athlete
- Beryl J. Levine, female justice
- Beryl Levinger, academic and teacher
- Beryl Ann Longino, wife of Lloyd Bentsen
- Beryl Markham (née Clutterbuck), horse trainer and aviator
- Beryl Marsden, singer
- Beryl Marshall, swimmer
- Beryl Eugenia McBurnie, dancer
- Beryl Elizabeth McLeish (née King), civil servant and wartime superintendent
- Beryl Measor, actress
- Beryl Mercer, actress
- Beryl Lucy Mills, advertising agent, librarian, and beauty queen
- Beryl Ann "Bel" Mooney, journalist and broadcaster
- Beryl Scott Nashar, geologist, academic, and teacher
- Beryl O Noakes, swimmer
- Dame Beryl Carnegy Joseph, Lady Oliver, British charity administrator
- Beryl Penrose, tennis player
- Beryl H. Potter (born Edna Beryl Hinkle), American astronomical researcher
- Beryl Potter, Canadian disability activist
- Beryl Powell, wife of Adam Clayton Powell III, daughter of Eileen Slocum and John Slocum
- Beryl Radin, scholar, scientist, editor, and teacher
- Beryl Randle, race walker and an athletics administrator
- Beryl Rawson (née Marie Wilkinson), writer, and teacher
- Beryl Reid, actress
- Beryl Hilda Rigg (née Helliwell), mother of Diana Rigg
- Beryl D. Roberts, politician
- Beryl Rowland, historian and teacher
- Beryl Satter, historian and teacher
- Beryl Smalley, historian
- Beryl Smeeton, travellers
- Beryl Audrey Pickering Splatt, biochemist
- Beryl Swain (née J Tolman), road racer
- Beryl Margaret Te Wiata (née McMillan), actor, author, and scriptwriter
- Beryl Tsang, fibre artist
- Beryl Frances Vertue, television producer
- Beryl Wallace (born Beatrice Heischuber), singer, dancer, and actress
- Beryl Atieno Wamira, athlete
- Beryl Elizabeth Williams, politician and school teacher
Males
Males named Beryl include:
- Beryl Franklin Anthony, Jr., politician
- Beryl Franklin Carroll, politician
- Beryl Leon Clark, football player
- Beryl Esco Drummond, basketball player
- Beryl Millard Follet, football player
- Beryl Richard Newman, Medal of Honor recipient
- Beryl Preston, British sailor
- Beryl Justice Richmond, baseball player
- Barney Ross (born Dov-Ber "Beryl" David Rosofsky), boxer
- Beryl Rubinstein, composer
- Beryl Cyril Sheldon Jr., known professionally as Jack Sheldon, musician, singer, comedian, actor
- Beryl Cylde Shipley, basketball coach
- Beryl Wayne Sprinkel, member of the Executive Office of the U.S. President
Pseudonym
- Stephen King (as Beryl Evans)
Fictional characters
- Beryl, in Beryl and the Croucher
- Beryl, played by Toni Collette, an emu character in Australian CGI animated film Blinky Bill the Movie
- "Beryl" Beryllinthranox, in Dragonlance
- Beryl, played by Carol White, in A Matter of WHO
- Beryl, played by Alexandra Dane, in Not on Your Nellie
- Queen Beryl, a villainess in the anime Sailor Moon
- Beryl the Peril, British cartoon character, in The Topper and others
- Beryl Abbott, played by Georgann Johnson, in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "One For The Road"
- Beryl Battersby, played by Paula Wilcox, in The Lovers
- Beryl Blenheim, in Chart Throb
- Beryl Chugspoke, played by Georgina Hale, in Emmerdale
- Beryl Crabtree, played by Patricia Garwood, in No Place Like Home
- Beryl Crossthwaite, played by Joan Scott, in Emmerdale
- Aunt Beryl Fairfield, in Prelude
- Beryl Hennessey, played by Polly James in The Liver Birds
- Beryl Humphries, played by Carmel McSharry, in Beryl's Lot
- Beryl Hutchinson, the third and most recent DC Comics superhero known as Squire
- Beryl Stratton Madison, in Body of Evidence
- Beryl Matt, in A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove
- Beryl Merit, played by Rosalind Knight, in Gimme Gimme Gimme
- Beryl Newsome, played by Madelaine Newton, in Inspector Morse episode "Masonic Mysteries"
- Beryl Patmore, played by Lesley Nicol, the cook on the ITV series Downton Abbey
- Beryl Hayden Peacock (also Elliott), played by Anny Tobin, in Coronation Street
- Beryl Stapleton, a character in The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Beryl Walters, played by Margaret Barton in the film, a character in the play Still Life and film Brief Encounter by Noël Coward