The Family name Eddy

The origin of the name Eddy is an interesting subject for research and speculation. Frank R. Holmes, in his "Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families, 1600-1700," suggests two possible origins; from the Gaelic eddee, meaning instructor; and from the Saxon ed, backwards, and ea water, a whirlpool or eddy; thus making it a place name. A much more probable origin is the Saxon root ead, meaning success or prosperity. This root occurs in several frequently used names, as Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edwin, and the obsolete Edwy. It is interesting to note that the earliest record yet found of John Eddy of Taunton spells the name Eddway. Eddy might be a diminutive of any one of these names. Robert Ferguson, in his work on "English Surnames" suggests also that it is a place-name, from the Anglo-Saxon Edingas, and Frisian Edde.

The earliest mention of the name is in the form Eddi or Edde, Latinized into Eddius. The bearer assumed the name Stephanus on taking orders. He went to Northumbria from Canterbury with Bishop Wilfrid (or Wilfrith) in 699. His special work was the teaching of the Roman method of chanting. In 709 he was an inmate of the monastery of Ripon, where he wrote a life of Wilfrid in Latin, a work of considerable interest and value.

In the "Domesday Book" the name Eddeu occurs in a description of Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, and in the time of Edward I persons named Ede, Edde, and Edwy are mentioned as paying taxes in Worcestershire. In 1486 a William Edy, Gent., is recorded in co. Herts. From 1545 the name was found frequently in Gloucestershire under the forms Edie, Eddy, Eddye, Edy and Edye. At Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eyde occurs as a surname between 1599 and 1610 and then vanishes, for a century at least.

In the records of the Archdeaconry Court of Cornwall the name is found in various forms, Edy,  Eady, Eedy, Ede, Edye, or Eddy, in different parishes from 1570 on. In Bristol, the town where William Eddye, the Vicar, was born, a number of wills have been discovered, dated about 1580, of persons bearing the names of Eddie, Eddye or Eddy. In Scotland the names Ade, Adie, Addy, Eadie are frequently found. Some of these are thought to be diminutives of Adam, a favorite name in that country. In 1672 a coat-of-arms was granted to David Eadie of Moneaght, Scotland, as noted in the paragraphs on heraldry.

With our present knowledge it is impossible to trace these various names to their sources. It seems quite clear that they come, at least in part, from different origins and have at times been interchanged in inextricable confusion.

Although William Eddye seems to have used two d's consistently in the spelling of his name, his descendants in this country, in the many variations found, frequently dropped one and also often doubled the initial E. This would suggest that the name was pronounced Eedy. As a matter of fact that pronunciation was largely, if not entirely, used in the western part of Rhode Island in the early portion of the nineteenth century. The writer of this article can recall hearing this pronunciation in his boyhood from some of the elderly people of that region. It is interesting to note that the names Edye and Edie, mentioned in the paragraphs on the coat-of-arms, suggest a like pronunciation.

Copyright © 2007 by The Eddy Family Association. All rights reserved.
Last revised: July 29, 2007