ABBEY

ABBEY. Perhaps originally given to some menial attached to a monastery, as 'John of the Abbey;' more probably, however, from Abbe, the ecclesiastical title, since we find it written in the H. K. le Abbe. The Scottish form is Abbay.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.