Darby Family History

English: habitational name from the city of Derby, the county seat of Derbyshire, but also from the much smaller place called West Derby in Lancashire. Both are named from Old Norse djúr ‘deer’ + bȳ ‘farm, settlement’. This form of the surname represents the pronunciation of both the placename and the surname.

Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Diarmada (or Mac Diarmada) ‘descendant (or ‘son’) of Diarmaid’, a personal name meaning ‘freeman’. See also Dermott, McDermott.

Gaelic Ó Duibhdhiormaigh was sometimes reinterpreted as Ó Diarmada and Darby could also be an Anglicized form of this name.

The English surname is also established in Ireland, having been taken to County Leix in the 16th century.