Percy
PUR-see
A Norman place-name turned surname and given name, later linked by folk etymology to a more vivid story of piercing a valley or eye.
Meaning
Percy is commonly explained as coming from Perci, a place in Normandy, which made it a Norman family name before it became a given name. The excerpts also preserve older folk-etymological ideas that connected Percy with phrases like "pierce the valley" or even with the name Peter/Pere, but those are later re-interpretations rather than the main historical source.
Origin
Norman FrenchOld FrenchLatinmasculine
Fun fact
19th-century writers loved to spin Percy into dramatic wordplay, including the fanciful idea that it meant "pierce the valley."
Confidence: mixed. Sources: History of Christian Names, Praenomina; or, the etymology of the principal Christian names of Great Britain and Ireland.