NORTHEY
Northey is an English surname of locational origin that appears in records dating back to the early twelfth century.
The name derives from the Old English words norð, meaning “north”, and ēg, meaning “island” or “piece of land surrounded by water”. It is therefore a name that originally identified a person as dwelling in a northern island or a northern tract of land.
The earliest confirmed spelling is that of Thomas de Northie, recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Kent in 1200 during the reign of King John, which shows the name in use over eight hundred years ago.
Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the surname appears in a variety of documents. In 1273 the London Pipe Rolls list Willelmus Northay turnus, and in 1296 the Writs of Parliament record a person named Johannes Northe. Other early forms include Walter Northye of Somerset (1327) and William le Northey in Northumberland (1297).
The evolution of the spelling saw variations such as Northay, Northy, Northeye, and Northice, many of which were adopted in different counties. By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries these forms were firmly established, and some families used more than one variant during a single generation.
Geographical distribution in Britain shows a concentration of the surname in the south‑west, particularly in Devon, Essex and Hertfordshire, where place‑names containing “north” and suffixes meaning enclosure (‑haeg) or island (‑eg) are common. In the North West, especially in Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire, the name also appears to be relatively frequent.
Internationally, the surname has travelled abroad, most notably to the United States where it underwent various anglicisations such as “Norton” and “Northy”. In the New England states of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island records trace the name back to the mid‑nineteenth century or earlier.
Over time, the name has given rise to compound surnames, such as North‑Hey and Hey‑North, typically formed when families merged and retained both elements. Variants like Northon‑Hey and Hey‑Northon also appear in historical documents.
Today, Northey remains a distinct family line maintained for many generations. Its persistence reflects the enduring legacy of a surname that originally signalled a person’s association with a northern island or tract of land in England.
Typical given names associated with the Northey surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Jonathan
- Kevin
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Richard
- Thomas
Female
- Carol
- Catherine
- Christine
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Jean
- Joanna
- Joanne
- Julie
- Lesley
- Linda
- Louise
- Sara
- Sarah
- Tracey
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Northey in...
Braille
⠝⠕⠗⠞⠓⠑⠽
Morse
-.---.-.-.....-.--
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,080 people named Northey in the UK. That makes it roughly the 6,958th most common surname in Britain. Around 17 in a million people in Britain are named Northey.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Northey
- Alfred Northey - Clergyman and cricketer (1838 to 1911)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.