Starr History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Starr is an ancient Anglo-Saxon name. It was a name given to a person who was a person whose personality or appearance called to mind a star. Starr is a nickname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Nicknames form a broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, and can refer directly or indirectly to one’s personality, physical attributes, mannerisms, or even their habits of dress. The surname Starr comes from the Old English words sterre, or starre, which mean star, and would have been given to someone with a bright personality. This word was also used to refer to a white patch of hair on the forehead of a horse, an so, it may have been transferred to refer to someone with a streak of white hair.

Early Origins of the Starr family

The surname Starr was first found in Wiltshire where they held a family seat from ancient times in the village of Longbridge Deverill at Glastonbury. It is said that King Alfred, King of the west Saxons, camped the night in the Deverill valley before defeating the Danes at the Battle of Ethandune in 878.

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Leuenot Sterre held lands in Derbyshire. 1 Later in Norfolk, we found Simon Sterre in the Pipe Rolls of 1130 and later again, William Sturre, Sterre was listed in the Assize Rolls for Gloucestershire in 1221. 2