Morris is a surname of various origins though mostly of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh origin. In 2014, the surname ranked 39 out of 104,537 in England, and 55 out of 400,980 in the USA.[1]
Morris is of Anglo-Norman origin and is a relationship name derived from the Middle English and Old French personal name Moreis, or Maurice (from the Latin Mauritius ‘Moorish, dark, swarthy’; from Maurus ‘a Moor’).[2][3] It was the name of the 3rd Century Christian martyr Saint Maurice.[4] According to the 1881 Census, the vast majority of people with the surname Morris were located in Lancashire, England (8723; 2516 per million); with significant concentrations in London, Glamorgan, and the W. Midlands. Now more widespread across the UK, the majority can be found in London, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Wales, with a total of 95,101 recorded across the country in 2016.[5][6][7] In Wales, Morris is an Anglicisation of the Welsh name Meurig, itself a Welsh variant of the Latin Mauritius (see also Morus and Morys), derived from the Anglo-Norman French form of the name.[8]
Ireland
Ó Muiris and, less commonly, de Moiréis in Irish; the Morris surname in Ireland is predominantly of Norman origin. It comes from the Norman "de Mareys", "de Marreis" and Latin "de Marisco", i.e., "of the marsh". It is a common surname in many parts of the south of Ireland, especially in Kilkenny, Tipperary, Offaly, Laois, Cork and Limerick, where it is now anglicised as Morris. A family of the name settled, in 1485, at Galway and became one of the Tribes of Galway. It may also refer to "descendant of Muiris" (sea-choice), a variant of Ó Muireasa. This was the name of a branch of the Uí Fiachrach who were formerly chiefs of a district on the southern shore of Sligo Bay, in the barony of Tireragh.[citation needed]
Effie Morris (1921–2009), American librarian and educator
Ivan Morris (1925–1976), British author and teacher in the field of Japanese studies
Jeremy Morris (born 1960), British historian, Church of England priest
Joe Hall Morris, American oral surgeon, chairman of the Oral Surgery Department at the University of Tennessee (1966–1988)
Lawrence Morris, chief of staff and counselor to the president at The Catholic University of America
Leon Morris (1914–2006), Australian New Testament scholar
Myron Newton Morris (1810–1885), American educator, politician and Congregationalist minister, principal of Bacon Academy (1837–1838, 1840–1843), member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (1872, 1875)
Mathias Morris (1787–1839), Anti-Jacksonian and Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
Milton Morris (1924–2019), Australian politician, Member of the New South Wales Parliament (1956–1980), New South Wales Minister for Transport (1965–1975)
Mount Etna Morris (1900–1988), American politician, State Treasurer of Missouri (1949–1953, 1957–1961, 1965–1969)
Naomi E. Morris (1921–1986), American jurist, Chief Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals (1978–1982)
Newbold Morris (1902–1966), American politician, lawyer, president of the New York City Council (1938–1945)
Olive Morris (1952–1979), British civil rights activist
Oscar Morris (1876–1939), American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Senate (1921–1938)
Roland S. Morris (1874–1945), U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1917–1920)
Staats Long Morris (1728–1800), major-general in the British army during the American Revolution, Governor of Quebec (1797–1800)
Stuart Morris, Australian lawyer, Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria (2003–2007)
Tim Morris (Timothy Bryce Morris; born 1955), Australian politician, member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly (2002–2014)
Toby Morris (politician) (1899–1973), American politician, U.S. Representative from Oklahoma (1947–1953, 1957–1961)
Timothy Morris (born 1958), British diplomat, ambassador to Morocco and Mauritania (2008–2012), the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo (temporary, 2014–2015), and South Sudan (2015–2017)
Trefor Morris (born 1934), British law enforcer, Chief Inspector of Constabulary (1993–1996)
Valentine Morris (1727–1789), British landowner and politician, Governor of St. Vincent (1772–1779)
Owen Temple-Morris (1896–1985), British barrister and Conservative politician, member of Parliament (1931–1942)
Julian Morris (economist), British and American economist, Vice President of Research at Reason Foundation
Kirsten Morris (born 1960), Canadian applied mathematician
Malcolm Morris (dermatologist) (1849–1924), British surgeon and dermatologist, first president of the British Association of Dermatologists (1920–1921), chairman of the London Radium Institute (1923–1925)
This page lists people with the surnameMorris. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
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