ORIGINS & MEANING
A northern English name with echoes of an older Scandinavian language.
Storrs is an uncommon English surname associated with northern England. Its possible origins connect both people and places with the Old Norse language brought to Britain during the Viking period.
One explanation connects Storrs with Storr, a nickname derived from Middle English stor(re) and Old Norse stórr. Meanings include big, large, strong and robust. An inherited surname could preserve a description once applied to an individual.
Another explanation is a name taken from a locality. The Oxford surname dictionary associates Storrs with minor places in northern England and the northern Midlands named from Middle English storth, referring to brushwood or a young plantation.
Examples include places around Lancashire and Yorkshire, including the Sheffield area.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (2016), entry for Storrs.
These explanations may apply to different families. A shared spelling alone does not establish a shared ancestor or identify which origin belongs to this branch.
SurnameDB reports the personal names Stori and Estori in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Thomas Storre in the Yorkshire Poll Tax returns of 1379. It also lists spellings including Storr, Storre, Storres and Storrs in later northern English records.
These are useful leads for surname research. They are not evidence of a continuous line from those individuals to the family recorded on this website.
Source: SurnameDB: Storrs. These early-record references have not been checked here against the original documents.
Forebears estimates approximately 2,954 bearers in its 2014 distribution dataset. Its largest recorded populations are in the United States, England and Australia, followed by smaller communities elsewhere.
Source: Forebears: Storrs distribution, 2014 dataset. These are database estimates, rather than a current census of everyone with the name.
Non temere sed fortiter
“Not rashly, but bravely.”
The supplied family arms and this motto give the archive its visual identity. Their heraldic history can be added when the family’s supporting records are available.
The family workbook traces people connected with Sutton cum Lound, Cusworth, Doncaster and later places overseas. Its earliest material contains unresolved links, which remain marked in the timeline.
Read our family history →