what surname is kerr
Kerr Genealogy & History. Kerr is an Anglo-Scottish surname, ultimately from Old Norse. It is a topographical name, occurring mainly in counties near the border, and it was used for people living near a patch of wetlands, particularly forested areas.It comes from the word kjarr, meaning brushwood or wet ground, which came into English kerr, for a bog or fen with undergrowth.Kerr family history begins with Johannes Ker, enrolled on the Glasgow Episcopal Register in 1190.Kerr genealogy boasts of several well-known people, like the University of California at Berkeley's first Chancellor Clark Kerr, and Scottish physicist John Kerr, who discovered the Kerr effect.t is a topographical name, occurring mainly in counties near the border, and it was used for people living near a patch of wetlands, particularly forested areas. It comes from the word kjarr, meaning brushwood or wet ground, which came into English kerr, for a bog or fen with undergrowth.