Disney
A surname from Normandy: it likely began as “de Isigny,” meaning someone from Isigny near Bayeux.
The #9,006 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 85,030 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Disney is generally explained as a Norman locational surname. Early forms such as de Isigny, d'Isigny, and similar spellings point to Isigny, a place near Bayeux in Normandy. In English records, the name was later reshaped into Disney, with the initial 'de' or 'd'' gradually absorbed into the surname.
History
The name appears in medieval English records and was associated with the Lincolnshire Disney family, including Norton Disney. 19th-century writers also linked the family tradition to Norman ancestry after the Conquest, though the precise documentary trail is not always clear in older sources. The surname later became familiar worldwide through the filmmaker Walt Disney.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Norton Disney in Lincolnshire is one of the places that helped preserve the surname in local history.
From the historical record
“in Piers Plo^mian. DISNEY. " Disney, alias De Iseney, he dwelleth at Diseney, and of his name and line be gentilmcn of Fraunce," says Leland, speaking of Norton-Disney, co. Lincoln. The surname appears in the various lists called the Roll of Battel Abbey, and the family came, it would ai^pear, from Isigni, near…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom