Verity ( alias Veretie, Verety, Verita, Veritie, etc.) is a female first name and a surname. As a first name it derives from the Latin feminine noun veritas, meaning "truth". It is thus an equivalent of Alethea, a female first name first used in England circa 1585, derived from the ancient and modern Greek feminine noun αλήθεια (pronounced "al- ee-thia"), meaning "truth". It was adopted in England as a Puritan and Quaker virtue name, truthfulness being considered as a desirable attribute especially in women, and following a new Protestant tradition of naming children after virtues instead of saints in order to avoid idolatry.
Verity is also a surname, which may have more ancient unrelated origins, possibly being a corruption of a similar word.[Surnames had been adopted by families in England centuries before the Puritan era]
First name
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Verity Crawley (born 1994), English professional bowler
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Verity Barton (born 1985), Australian (Queensland) politician
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Verity Firth (born 1973), Australian politician
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Verity James, Australian TV and radio presenter
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Verity Lambert (1935–2007), English television producer
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Verity Laughton (born 1952), Australian playwright
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Verity Marshall (born 1986), English actress
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Verity Rushworth (born 1985), English actress
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Verity Sharp (born 1970), English broadcast radio personality
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Verity Snook-Larby (born 1970), English race walker
Fictional characters
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Verity, the assistant of Fred and George Weasley in Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Verity Poldark Blamey, recurring character in the 2015 television series Poldark
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Verity Price, character in the InCryptid novel series
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Verity Simone Carlo, character in the IDW Publishing Transformers comic series
Surname
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Anthony Verity (born 1939), English educationalist and classical scholar
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Charles Verity (1814–1899), English stone mason, building contractor and mayor of Doncaster
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Charlotte Verity (born 1954), British painter
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Claude Hamilton Verity (1880–1949), English hardware merchant, engineer and inventor
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Elsie Eleanor Verity (1894–1971), "The First Lady of the motor trade"
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Fred Verity (1847–1897), English engineer, inventor, iron founder, brass-founder, manufacturer and retailer of ironmongery
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Hedley Verity (1905–1943), English cricketer
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Hugh Verity (1918-2001), British RAF and SOE pilot
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Jake Verity (born 1997), American football player
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John Verity (born 1949), English guitarist
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Ruggero Verity (1883–1959), Italian physician and entomologist
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Thomas Verity, an English architect (1837 – 1891)
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William Verity Jr. (1917–2007), American businessman and government official
- Other
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Verity (sculpture), a bronze statue made by Damien Hirst
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Verity (ship), e.g. List of shipwrecks in 2023#October
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Verity, 2018 novel by Colleen Hoover