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Greetings from the Academy of St. Gabriel!
You wrote asking for information regarding whether the name "du Beers" is an appropriate English byname during the span of 1000 to 1250 A.D. Your given name, "Robert," is a Norman name, which was not used in England until after the Conquest of 1066. With this given name, we are assuming you want a post-Conquest Anglo-Norman persona. If this assumption is incorrect, please send us more details and we'll be glad to offer other suggestions.
We were unable to find "du Beers" as an English byname during your period. The combination of "du" and "Beers" is unlikely: "du" is a French word meaning "of the," and would only be found in a French name adopted into English. For example, the French "du Bois" (meaning "of the forest") was adopted into English as the surname "Dubois." [1] "Beers" does not appear to be French word, so it probably would not have combined with the French preposition.
In your note, you also spelled your name as "de Beers." We wondered if you are thinking of the name of the modern South African diamond merchants. Their name is Dutch, not English. The Dutch name might have derived from a Dutch phrase meaning "the bear" or "the boar" [2]. The final "-s" appears to be a modern spelling in Dutch; we could not find any examples of that variation in period.
The similar Old English word "bera" (meaning "bear") produced similar bynames in England: "le Bere" in 1166, "Bere" in 1177, and "le Beer" in 1296. [1] As far as we can tell, the final "-s" would not be found in English bynames based on "bera."
You may also want to consider a byname based on the name of an English place. Several towns in Somerset and Dorset have names similar to the byname you are considering: "Beara," "Beer," "Beera," or "Beere." People from these towns had locative bynames such as "de Bera" in 1168, "de la Bera" in 1168, and "Attebere" in 1247. [1] Following the same construction, you could plausibly use "de Beer" or "de Beere."
In conclusion, for an English persona after the Battle of Hastings, you could use "Robert le Bere," "Robert Bere," "Robert le Beer," all meaning "Robert the Bear"; or "Robert de Beer," or "Robert de Beere," both meaning "Robert from a place called Beer."
You alluded briefly to arms in your note. If you would like our assistance in designing arms, please write us again.
We hope this has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Walraven van Nijmege, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek and Arval d'Espas Nord contributed research and comments to this letter.
For the Academy,
AElfwyn aet Gyrwum
[1] Reaney & Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, Oxford University Press, 1995.
[2] A. Huizinga, Encyclopedie van Namen, A.J.G. Strengholt, Amsterdam, 1955.