From an Old English place name meaning 'beaver stream' or 'beaver meadow'.
Beverley derives from the Old English *beofor* (beaver) and *lēah* (woodland clearing or stream), originally a place name describing a beaver-haunted waterway. The town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is the most famous settlement bearing this name, and it was from this prestigious market town — home to the magnificent Beverley Minster, one of England's grandest Gothic churches — that the surname originated. As with so many English place-names, it passed through the surname stage before entering use as a given name, initially for men, in the nineteenth century.
For much of the Victorian and Edwardian era, Beverley was used for both sexes in England, though it gradually tilted feminine through the twentieth century, a gendering that became more pronounced in North America. The spelling Beverley (with the final 'e') has traditionally been the British and more formal variant, while Beverly (without) became the American standard. Beverly Hills, California — named after Beverly Farms in Massachusetts, itself named after the English town — gave the name a particular glamour after becoming synonymous with Hollywood wealth and celebrity from the 1920s onward.
The television series *Beverly Hills, 90210* in the 1990s further embedded it in popular culture. Notable bearers include Beverley Sills, the celebrated American operatic soprano who became one of the most famous sopranos of the twentieth century and later a beloved arts administrator, lending the name considerable artistic prestige. In Britain, the name has strong associations with the postwar generation, peaking in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Today it sits in a nostalgic register — unmistakably mid-century — but its Yorkshire roots and musical associations give it a substance that lifts it above mere period charm.