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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English (Yorkshire) : habitational name, probably from Mosbrough in South Yorkshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Moresburh, from Old English mōres, genitive singular of mōr ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘moor’ + burh ‘fortress’.
  • Norwegian : habitational name from any of several farmsteads in southern Norway, so named from Old Norse mós (genitive case of mór ‘sandy plain’) + býr ‘farm’.

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