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Avery is an English name ultimately derived from the Old English name Ælfred (Old English form of Alfred),^[1] which literally translates to 'elf-counsel'^[2] Avery also exists as a given name in addition to its usage as a surname.

It has also been suggested that Avery as a surname could be a derivation of the French place name Évreux.^{[citation needed]}

Prevalence in England

In 2014, the name's frequency was highest in Devon (5.9 times the British average), followed by Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Warwickshire, Cornwall and Somerset.^[3]

Notable people with the name

Activism

• Byllye Avery, American health care activist
• Greg Avery, British animal rights activist
• Rachel Foster Avery, 19th century American suffragist
• Rosa Miller Avery (1830–1894), American abolitionist, political reformer, suffragist, writer; mother-in-law of Rachel Foster Avery
• John Avery, member of the Loyal 9, member of the Sons of Liberty.

Law and politics

• Bill Avery (born 1940), Nebraska politician and professor
• Brian Avery (activist), former volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement
• Carlos Avery (1868–1930), Minnesota newspaper publisher and politician
• Ephraim Kingsbury Avery, Methodist minister accused of an 1832 murder
• Isaac E. Avery, Colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War
• James Avery (American colonist) (1620–1700), Connecticut colonist, legislator, and military commander
• John Avery (politician), physician and politician from Michigan
• John Keith Avery, former commissioner of the New South Wales police
• Oscar F. Avery (1841–1924), Illinois state senator and lawyer
• Steven Avery, American exonerated by DNA evidence for a crime
• Waightstill Avery, North Carolina's first attorney general and a colonel during the American Revolutionary War
• William H. Avery (politician) (1911–2009), former governor of Kansas
• William Tecumsah Avery (1819–1880), former member of the United States House of Representatives

Art and media

• Catharine Hitchcock Tilden Avery (1844–1911), American author, editor, educator
• Fiona Avery, comic book and television writer
• George Avery, American professor of German Studies
• Gillian Avery, British children's writer and scholar
• Harold Avery, British author of children's literature
• Tom Avery, explorer, mountaineer, author, and motivational speaker
• Valeen Tippetts Avery, American biographer and historian
• Brad Avery, guitarist for the rock band Third Day
• Charles Avery (actor) (1873–1926), American silent-film actor, film director, and screenwriter
• Charles Avery (artist) (born 1973), Scottish artist from Oban
• Charles Avery (pianist) (1892–1974), American blues and boogie-woogie pianist
• Dylan Avery, American filmmaker
• Eric Avery, original bass player for Jane's Addiction
• Jack Avery, member of the American pop band Why Don't We
• James Avery (1945–2013), American actor
• James Avery (musician) (1937–2009), American and German pianist and conductor
• Margaret Avery, American singer and actress
• Patricia Avery (1902–1973), American silent film actress
• Phyllis Avery, American actress
• Shondrella Avery, American actress
• Val Avery (1924–2009), American actor
• Milton Avery, American Modernist painter
• Tex Avery, animator and director; creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
• Susanna Avery-Quash (born 1970), an English art historian
• Richard Avery born 1947 Actor and director.

Science and engineering

• Clarence W. Avery, engineer at Ford Motor Company
• John Scales Avery, theoretical chemist and peace activist
• Oswald Avery, physician and scientist
• R. Stanton Avery, (1907–1997), American inventor
• Raymond Avery, New Zealand pharmaceutical scientist, inventor, author and social entrepreneur
• Robert Hanneman Avery, founder of the Avery Company, an American farm tractor, truck and automobile manufacturer.
• William H. Avery (engineer), aeronautics engineer

Sports

• Albert Avery, English rugby league footballer
• Donnie Avery (born 1984), American football player
• Genard Avery (born 1995), American football player
• George Avery Young (1866–1900), English sportsman who played rugby and cricket
• Gordon George Avery (1925–2006), Australian track and field athlete
• James Avery (baseball) (born 1984) Canadian baseball player
• Jim Avery (born 1944), American football player
• John Avery (Canadian football), Canadian football player
• Ryan Avery (lacrosse), former lacrosse player
• Sean Avery (born April 10, 1980), Canadian professional hockey player
• Steve Avery, former Major League Baseball pitcher
• Tre Avery (born 1997), American football player
• William Avery (basketball), professional basketball player
• Xavier Avery (born 1990), American baseball player

Other

• Bryan Avery, British architect
• Clark Moulton Avery (1819–1864), Confederate colonel
• Cyrus Avery, American highway commissioner
• Henry Every (or Avery), 17th-century pirate
• James Avery (Medal of Honor), (1825–1898) Union Navy seaman and recipient of the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War
• Peter Avery, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
• R. Stanton Avery, founder of Avery Dennison Corporation and namesake of Caltech's Avery House
• Samuel Putnam Avery, (1822–1904) American connoisseur and dealer in art
• Sewell Avery, U.S. businessman
• William Beilby Avery (1854–1908), philatelist
• Justice Avery, multiple people

Fictional characters

• Avery, a pure-blood wizarding family in the Harry Potter series
• Jackson Avery, in the TV series Grey's Anatomy, or his grandfather, Harper Avery
• Bree Avery, protagonist of the lonelygirl15 Internet video series
• Rupert Avery, a main character in The Serpentwar Saga
• Shug Avery, one of the main characters in the 1982 novel The Color Purple
• Mr. Avery, a character in the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird