Archie
A Scottish surname that usually began as a nickname from the pet form of Archibald.
The #4,990 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,887 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained as coming from the Scots nickname Archie, a familiar short form of the personal name Archibald. Archibald itself goes back to Germanic elements meaning something like “genuine” or “bold” plus “brave,” though the surname usually points to the pet form rather than the full name. In some 19th-century sources, Archie is also treated as a Border-style byname connected with descent from an Archibald ancestor.
History
Bardsley and Lower both treat Archie as a Scottish form tied to Archibald, especially as a pet or nursery name used in Scotland. The name appears in historical Scottish records and is associated with Border and Lowland usage, where short forms of given names often became hereditary surnames. It remains uncommon as a surname and is much better known as a forename or nickname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older writers even note Archie as a familiar household form in prominent Scottish families, which helped it spread beyond being just a personal nickname.
From the historical record
“the pursuit is less obvious. ARCHIBALD. The baptismal name. ARCHIE. lu Scotland, a diminutive or nurse-name of Archibald. ARKCOLL. Perhaps from the parish of of Ercall Magna, or High Ercall, in Shrop- shire. A more likely derivation, however, is from the Dutch Van Arkel, a noble fa- mily renowned for their courage.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom