Beryl (given name)

Beryl is a given name with reference to the mineral beryl. Although more commonly a feminine given name, it has been used in the past as a masculine name, predominantly in the United States. Use as a male name likely comes from a variant spelling of the surname Burrell, whose seeming root is the Old French bovre, a reddish-brown woolen fabric with the resultant name denoting a worker in the wool trade. Beryl may also be a variant spelling of the Yiddish male name Berel.

Like most jewel names, Beryl's use as a feminine name dates from the late 19th-century: dancer Beryl de Zoete and actress Beryl Mercer would have been among the earliest namesakes being born respectively in 1879 and 1882. The female name Beryl was always more popular in the British Isles than in North America; since the mid-20th century the name has become somewhat unfashionable in the British Isles.

Females
Females named Beryl include:
 * Claire Adams (née Beryl Vere Nassau Adams), actress and benefactor
 * Beryl Amedee, American politician
 * Beryl T. (Sue) Atkins, British lexicographer
 * Beryl Bainbridge, novelist
 * Beryl Baxter (née M. Ivory), actress
 * Beryl Beaurepaire, feminist
 * Beryl Bernay, journalist, painter, and photographer
 * Beryl Bender Birch, yoga teacher
 * Beryl Booker, pianist
 * Beryl Brewin (1910–1999), New Zealand marine zoologist
 * Beryl Paston Brown, academic and teacher
 * Beryl Annear Bryant, actress and theatrical producer
 * Beryl Bryden, jazz singer
 * Beryl Burton, racing cyclist
 * Beryl W. Chan, wife of Gerald Chan
 * Beryl G.S. Chung, Cannes Lion award winning designer
 * Beryl Christie, mother of Donald J. Harris
 * Beryl Cook, artist best known for her paintings
 * Beryl Cooke, actress
 * Beryl Corner, doctor
 * Beryl Crockford (formerly Mitchell; née Martin), rower
 * Beryl Mildred Cryer, writer
 * Beryl Cunningham, actress and model
 * Beryl Davis, jazz singer
 * Beryl Dean, British religious embroiderer
 * Beryl May Dent, (1900–1977), English mathematical physicist
 * Beryl de Zoete, ballet dancer
 * Beryl May Dent, mathematical physicist, technical librarian, and programmer
 * Beryl Killeen Donkin, legal secretary
 * Beryl-Adolphs Nalowa Esembe, sociologist and anthropologist
 * Beryl Evans (née Williams), politician
 * Beryl Evans, murder victim by John Christie
 * Beryl Evans, actress, wife of Frank Thornton
 * Beryl Ferguson, South African politician
 * Beryl Fletcher, feminist author
 * Beryl Fox, documentary film director and producer
 * Beryl Gaffney, politician
 * Béryl Gastaldello, swimmer
 * Beryl Gilroy (née Answick), novelist and teacher
 * Beryl Goldwyn Karney, ballet dancer
 * Beryl Cynthia Gordon, wife of Harry Bloom
 * Beryl Grant, nurse, community worker, and public servant
 * Beryl Grey, ballet dancer
 * Beryl "Beb" Hearnden, farmer, journalist, and author
 * Beryl D. Hines, Cold War-era journalist and aunt of Amy Brenneman
 * Beryl A. Howell, judge
 * Beryl Hutchinson, British volunteer ambulance driver and officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
 * Beryl Ingham, dancer and actress
 * Beryl Elaine Jacka, administrator
 * Beryl Jones (née Davies), politician
 * Beryl Koltz, film director
 * Beryl Korot, video artist
 * Béryl Laramé, athlete
 * Beryl J. Levine, female justice
 * Beryl Levinger, academic and teacher
 * Beryl Ann Longino, wife of Lloyd Bentsen
 * Beryl Markham (née Clutterbuck), horse trainer and aviator
 * Beryl Marsden, singer
 * Beryl Marshall, swimmer
 * Beryl McBurnie, dancer
 * Beryl McLeish (née King), civil servant and wartime superintendent
 * Beryl Measor, actress
 * Beryl Mercer, actress
 * Beryl Mills, advertising agent, librarian, and beauty queen
 * Beryl Ann "Bel" Mooney, journalist and broadcaster
 * Beryl Nashar, geologist, academic, and teacher
 * Beryl Noakes, swimmer
 * Beryl Oliver, British charity administrator
 * Beryl Penrose, tennis player
 * Beryl H. Potter (born Edna Beryl Hinkle), American astronomical researcher
 * Beryl Potter, Canadian disability activist
 * Beryl Powell, wife of Adam Clayton Powell III, daughter of Eileen Slocum and John Slocum
 * Beryl Preston, British sailor
 * Beryl Radin, scholar, scientist, editor, and teacher
 * Beryl Randle, race walker and an athletics administrator
 * Beryl Rawson (née Marie Wilkinson), writer, and teacher
 * Beryl Reid, actress
 * Beryl Hilda Rigg (née Helliwell), mother of Diana Rigg
 * Beryl D. Roberts, politician
 * Beryl Rowland, historian and teacher
 * Beryl Satter, historian and teacher
 * Beryl Shereshewsky, American YouTuber
 * Beryl Smalley, historian
 * Beryl Smeeton, traveller
 * Beryl Splatt, biochemist
 * Beryl Swain (née J Tolman), road racer
 * Beryl Te Wiata (née McMillan), actor, author, and scriptwriter
 * Beryl Tsang, fibre artist
 * Beryl Vertue, television producer
 * Beryl Wallace (born Beatrice Heischuber), singer, dancer, and actress
 * Beryl Wamira, athlete
 * Beryl Williams, politician and school teacher

Males
Males named Beryl include:
 * Berle Adams (born Beryl Adasky), music industry executive and talent booking agent
 * Beryl Anthony Jr., politician
 * Beryl F. Carroll, politician
 * Beryl Clark, football player
 * Beryl Drummond, basketball player
 * Beryl Follet, football player
 * Beryl Newman, Medal of Honor recipient
 * Beryl Richmond, baseball player
 * Barney Ross (born Dov-Ber "Beryl" David Rosofsky), boxer
 * Beryl Rubinstein, composer
 * Beryl Cyril Sheldon Jr., known professionally as Jack Sheldon, musician, singer, comedian, actor
 * Beryl Shipley, basketball coach
 * Beryl Sprinkel, member of the Executive Office of the U.S. President

Pseudonym

 * Stephen King (as Beryl Evans)

Fictional characters

 * Beryl, in Beryl and the Croucher
 * Beryl, played by Toni Collette, an emu character in Australian CGI animated film Blinky Bill the Movie
 * "Beryl" Beryllinthranox, in Dragonlance
 * Beryl, played by Carol White, in A Matter of WHO
 * Beryl, played by Alexandra Dane, in Not on Your Nellie
 * Queen Beryl, a villainess in the anime Sailor Moon
 * Beryl the Peril, British cartoon character, in The Topper and others
 * Beryl Abbott, played by Georgann Johnson, in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "One For The Road"
 * Beryl Battersby, played by Paula Wilcox, in The Lovers
 * Beryl Blenheim, in Chart Throb
 * Beryl Chugspoke, played by Georgina Hale, in Emmerdale
 * Beryl Crabtree, played by Patricia Garwood, in No Place Like Home
 * Beryl Crossthwaite, played by Joan Scott, in Emmerdale
 * Aunt Beryl Fairfield, in Prelude
 * Beryl Hennessey, played by Polly James in The Liver Birds
 * Beryl Humphries, played by Carmel McSharry, in Beryl's Lot
 * Beryl Hutchinson, the third and most recent DC Comics superhero known as Squire
 * Beryl Stratton Madison, in Body of Evidence
 * Beryl Matt, in A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove
 * Beryl Merit, played by Rosalind Knight, in Gimme Gimme Gimme
 * Beryl Newsome, played by Madelaine Newton, in Inspector Morse episode "Masonic Mysteries"
 * Beryl Patmore, played by Lesley Nicol, the cook on the ITV series Downton Abbey
 * Beryl Hayden Peacock (also Elliott), played by Anny Tobin, in Coronation Street
 * Beryl Stapleton, in The Hound of the Baskervilles
 * Red Beryl in Land of the Lustrous
 * Beryl Walters, played by Margaret Barton in the film, a character in the play Still Life and film Brief Encounter by Noël Coward
 * Beryl, a character created by Joanna Quinn and appearing in her short films: Girls Night Out, Body Beautiful, Dreams And Desires: Family Ties and Affairs of the Art

Other uses

 * 1729 Beryl, an asteroid named for Beryl H. Potter