This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Theodorie' (Tedric, Domesday), from the nick. Terry, probably from the French nick. Thierry.

David fil. Tiny, Estates and Families of Cumberland, Cumberland.

Terry (without surname), Yorkshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard Terry, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Terricus le Alemaunde, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Geoffrey Terri, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Terricus Baril, Somerset, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Johannes Tyrry, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Petrus Terre, 1379: ibid.

1613. James Browne and Bridget Terry: Marriage Lic. (London).

Terye Robsort, 1629: Reg. St. Mary Aldermary.

Thomas Terrick, 1694, Cheshire: Earwaker's East Cheshire.

A diminutive of Theodoric. David filius Terri occurs as donor of a Galloway church to Holyrood in a confirmation of the gift by John, bishop of Whiterne and in the confirmation by William the Lion (LSC, p. 39, 40). The name is found in Arbroath in 1485 (RAA, II, 261).

(Anglo-French-Teut.) contraction of Theodoric, q.v.

Terry.—Hundred Rolls Geoffery Terri.— do.

Wo was Hawkyn, wo was Herry ! Wo was Tomkyn, wo was Terry !—‘The Turnament of Tottenham', 222-3: Percy’s Reliques.

The present-day French forms are Théry, Thiéry, Thierry.

A form, Terrick, preserving the orig. guttural, remained in Cheshire (and prob. elsewhere) in the late-17th cent.; and a 13th-cent. Latinization was Terricus.

(Irish-Latin) a diminutive of Terence, q.v.

Not ' the tearful one ' as some etymologists have it, but a corruption of Theodoric, the personal name, like the French Thierry. In H.R. Terri and Terry are without prefix.

The Terrys or Terreys include an old Thanet family of gentry, several of whom were buried in Monckton church in the latter half of the 17th century (H.). In Elizabeth's time the Terrys held the manors of Bicknor and Swanton Court; and in the same reign there lived a family of yeomen of the name in Herne, and in the time of Charles I. inShoreham. Much property was held by the Terrys in the early part of last century, when there were Terrys or Terreys of Faversham, Brookland, Ospringe, Staplehurst, Trapham, etc. (H.). It was also an old clerical name in the county. The incumbents of Petham in 1664, of St. Mary church, Sandwich, in 1622, and of Goodneston in 1736, were thus named (H.). Terry is a name now also represented in Bucks and the West Riding; and it is remarkable that, as far back as the reign of Edward I., it occurred still in Yorkshire, and also in the counties adjacent to Bucks, namely those of Oxford, Northampton, and Hunts (H. R.).