Coe
A surname that may come from a nickname for a jackdaw or an odd old fellow, and in some cases from a local place-name.
The #2,157 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,357 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Coe has more than one plausible source. In English usage, it has been linked to a nickname based on the jackdaw, a bird associated in older dialects with a lively or odd person; this may also have led to the sense “eccentric old man” recorded in Norfolk. Another possibility is a local or topographic origin in Scotland, from the river Coe that gives its name to Glencoe. Some 19th-century writers also suggested unrelated or less certain connections, so the name should be treated as genuinely multiple in origin rather than explained by a single root.
History
The name is found early in English records, including medieval examples such as Beatrix le Coe. Later surname writers especially associated it with Norfolk dialect usage and with Scottish place-names, showing that the spelling could arise independently in different areas. In modern times it survives as a relatively uncommon surname in Britain and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One older Norfolk gloss gave coe as meaning an eccentric old man, which is a rare case of a surname being explained by a local nickname still remembered in dialect.
From the historical record
“bably much earlier. COE. 1. In Norfolk, an eccentric old man. 2. A Scottish rivulet giving name to Glencoe. There is a Beatrix le Coe in H.R. COFFEE. COAFFEE. COFFEY. May be local, or may be of common origin with Coffin, Cnffin, &c., the root being Lat. calvus, bald. ''Coffee," says Ferguson, "I take to be the same…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom