Family name origins & meanings
- English : variant of Perrier 1 and 2.
- American bearers of the surname include Bennet Puryear (1826–1914), born in Mecklenburg Co., VA, youngest son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Marshall) Puryear, who studied medicine and chemistry before the Civil War, after which he became a professor of chemistry; he did pioneering work in the application of chemistry to agriculture. He had 11 children by his two wives.