Meaning of Surname BIRKS

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What is the meaning of the surname - Birks ?

BIRKS	A dweller by the birch-trees
BIRKS (English)	Variation of BIRCH, a topographic name for someone who lived by a birch tree or in a birch wood.
Northern English:	variant of Birch
North German:	topographic name for someone who lived among birch trees, from a derivative of Middle Low German berke ‘birch’.

Place names on old maps can often give clues to the age and historical character of a wood. Hagg or Hag in Durham is commonly associated with older coppice woods as is Coppy. Individual species may also be reflected in the name: Oak (Oakes, Akk), Holly (Hollin), Ash (Esh, Ashes), Birch (Birks), Hazel (Hesle), Yew (Eu), Alder (Aller).

from "County Durham Landscape"

The element "birks" meaning "birch-tree"

Examples: "Braes of Birkenhills" NJ7445, "The Birks" NJ7261

from "Ordnance Survey Guide to Scots origins of place names in Britain"

birks = group of birch trees

from "Glossary of Scots Words"

Weekley describes this "phonetic rule" as follows:
"The majority of monosyllabic, and many dissyllabic, local names are commonly found with -s, originally due to analogy with Wills, Jones, etc., where -s is the sign of the genitive. It will be found that this addition of -s in local names generally takes place whenever it does not involve an extra syllable or any exertion in pronunciation,
e.g. Birks but Birch, Noakes but Nash, Marks but March, Meadows but Field, Sykes but Sich ... This -s is also added to specific place names, e.g. Cheales from Cheal (Linc.), Tarbox from Tarbock (Lanc.), ... Rhymes from Ryme (Dors.), etc."

From: "Ernest Weekley, The Romance of Names, quoted in Reaney"

"Aberfeldy is a small town which lies in the heart of the Perthshire Highlands, on the southern shore of Britain's most powerful watercourse, the River Tay, about three miles downstream from Loch Tay. The town's name is derived from Abair Pheallaig: mouth of the Pheallaig Burn.
It is this burn, a delightful array of indigenous animal and plant life, and particularly the Falls of Moness and the birch trees of Aberfeldy which inspired Robert Burns to write the song that has immortalised the town:
‘The Birks of Aberfeldy' (birks: birch trees)"

"The Birks of Aberfeldy is a nature walk on the outskirts of the small town of Aberfeldy , where I was brought up. It acquired the name of "The Birks" from the predominance of the Birch tree within it. There are a variety of other species of tree to be seen as you walk round, however. "

“The braes ascend like lofty wa's,
The foaming stream deep roaring fa's,
O'erhung wi' fragrant spreading shaws
The Birks of Aberfeldy"

by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

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