From an English place name meaning beaver stream, from Old English 'beofor' and 'leac'.
Beverly began as an English place-name before it became a personal one. It comes from Old English elements usually understood as "beaver" and "stream" or "meadow," referring to a place frequented by beavers. The Yorkshire town of Beverley helped fix the name in the historical record, and like many English surname-style names, it later crossed over into given-name use.
At first it was used for men as well as women, which is easy to forget now, because modern ears tend to hear Beverly as distinctly feminine. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Beverly became fashionable in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States, where it developed a polished, slightly glamorous image. Mid-century popular culture reinforced that impression through figures such as actress Beverly Garland and singer Beverly Sills, while the famous California place-name Beverly Hills added a layer of luxury and cinematic sparkle.
Over time, the name shifted from brisk unisex surname-name to soft, elegant vintage feminine classic. Today Beverly often feels like a name with two histories at once: one rooted in the English landscape and another in twentieth-century style. It can evoke old Hollywood, suburban America, and the refined naming fashions of the 1930s through 1950s. Literary and cultural associations are less tied to a single canonical character than to a whole atmosphere of sophistication and nostalgia, which is part of the name's enduring charm.