Darby

See also: darby

English edit

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Darby

Wikipedia

From the English place name Derby, from Old Norse djúr (“deer”) + býr (“settlement”).

Darby (countable and uncountable, plural Darbys)

A habitational surname from Old Norse.
A male given name transferred from the surname.
- 2000, David Pierce, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader, . Cork University Press., →ISBN, page 8:
  The man whom you call Diarmaid when you speak Irish, a low, pernicious, un-Irish, detestable custom, begot by slavery, and propagated by cringing, and fostered by flunkeyism, forces you to call Jeremiah when you speak English, or as a concession, Darby.
A female given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.
- 1992, John Grisham, The Pelican Brief, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 52:
  "You could always pick names, Thomas. I remember women you turned down because you didn't like their names. Gorgeous, hot women, but with flat names. Darby. Has a nice, erotic touch to it. What a name.
A number of places in the United States:
1. An unincorporated community in Teton County, Idaho.
2. A town in Ravalli County, Montana.
3. An unincorporated community in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
4. Three townships in Ohio, in Madison County, Pickaway County and Union County.
5. A borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
6. A township (with two halves separated by other areas) in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Misspelling of Derby.

Used as an Anglicisation of Diarmaid in Ireland.

1735 Henry Woodfall: The Joy of Love never forgot, The Gentlemen's Magazine, March 1735, volume 5, page 153:
Old Darby, with Joan by his side, / You've often regarded with wonder.
1885, Frances Mabel Robinson, Mr. Butler's Ward, Vizetelly, page 95:
"Theatre and saltpetre are both spelt that way, Arthur; depend upon it, it is Deirder - a sort of peasant name like Darby and Biddy, a corruption of something else."