This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the Bar,' i.e. the entrance to the city or town; v. Bargate, usually made of posts and chain.

Maurice de la Barre. Devon, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

John de la Barre, Staffordshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

William atte Barre, Derbyshire, ibid.

Gunilda de la Barre, Hertfordshire. Hundred Rolls.

Philip de le Barre, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Thomas atte Barr, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

1765. Married — Henry Barr and Elis. Richardson: St. George, Hanover Square.

Of local origin from Barr in Ayrshire or Barr in Renfrewshire, or perhaps from both. The surname is most frequently found at the present day in the district around Glasgow, and is a common surname in the Kilbarchan Commissariot Record. Atkyn de Barr was bailie of Ayr c. 1340 (Friars Ayr, p. 15). John Bar or de Barre was burgess of Edinburgh in 1423 (LSC., p. 227; Egidii, p. 45). Patrick Bar was a witness in Glasgow in 1551, and William Barr 'combuigess' of the same town in 1554 (Protocols, I). Robert Barre, barber in Knockdole, was cited before the Privy Council in 1565 (RPC., I, p. 377), and Alexander Bar was retoured heir of James Bar in Kylesmure, his father, in 1600 (Retours, Ayr, 36). Arnchibald Bar was burgess of Glasgow in 1612 (Burgesses), and William Barr took the Test in Paisley in 1686 (RPC., 3. ser. XI. p. 496). As Bar, Barr, and Barre the name occurs in the Edinburgh Marriage Records. Sometimes difficult to separate from Barry which also occurs in records as Barre.

(Anglo-French) Dweller at a Bar, Barrier, or Gateway. [Middle English Old French barre, Low Latin barra] William atte Barre. —Hundred Rolls Philip de la Barre.— do.

(Celtic) Dweller at a Hill-Top. [Gaelic (and Irish) barr]

An English name of three different origins, very numerous in northeast Ulster. Woulfe is misleading as he treats it only as an anglicized form of the very rare Gaelic name Ó Baire, which is now almost extinct.

##### [BARRETT], Baróid in Munster, Bairéid in Connacht.

These families came with the Anglo-Norman invasion and became completely hibernicized. IF 51; Map Cork and Mayo

(German, English) Dweller at the sign of the bear; one thought to possess bearlike qualities. The bear was the king of beasts in the north of Europe.

(Scottish) One who came from Barr (height), in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire; dweller at the top of the hill.

(from a place name) From the town of Bar in the Ukraine. The town was the property of Bona Sforza, sixteenth-century queen of Poland, who was born in Bari, Italy. Jewish girls in that town were named Bona in honor of the queen, and this name often became Bina, in Yiddish.

1. A parish and a hamlet in co. Stafford; also a parish in Ayrshire. 2. The gateway of a fortified town. 3. A preDomesd. name Bar, meaning probably either Anglo-Saxon bar, bear, or bar, boar-a sobriquet. De la Bare. H.R.

Local: from the parish of Barr in Ayrshire.

(Celtic.) Local. The top or summit of any thing; any thing round. Bar, Gaelic, an old word for a bard or learned man. Bar, local, a bank of sand or earth, a shoal; the shore of the sea. It may be derived from Barre, a town in France, or from Barr, a parish and village in Ayrshire, Scotland.

From La Barre in the Cotentin. Gerard, Geoffry, Peter, Ralph, and Tiger de Barra of Normandy, 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Ralph Barre was of England, 1153 (Mon. ii. 599), Geoffry, Peter, Richard Barre or De la Barre, 13th cent. The De la Barres or De la Beres held Southam, Gloucester.

A location name in Ayrshire; or from the Old Norse, Bangr; nickname from the Danish, Barr; from the Flemish, Bar; from the French, de la Barre; in the Domesday Book, Bar; a personal name.