 The street name has been recorded as "Bewesmarkes" (1407), "Bevys Marke" (1450), "Bevesmarkes" (1513), "Bevers-market" (1630), and "Beavis Markes" (1677), prior to Bevis Marks (since 1720).The antiquarian John Stow believed the name to derive from the Abbots of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, in whose ownership this part of the city was until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.This etymology was confirmed as correct by E. Ekwall in his "Street-names of the City of London" (1954).