Gaddy
A surname with a few possible roots, but most likely a variant built from the old personal name Gadd or a related medieval nickname form.
The #4,251 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,011 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Gaddy is generally understood as a surname formed from a short personal name or nickname such as Gadd, with the ending -y or -ie giving a familiar or diminutive feel. The base name Gadd is old in English usage and may itself be linked to a nickname or an earlier given name, though the exact source is not always certain. In some cases, surnames of this type also overlap with Norman-French forms such as Gaddes or Gaddez, which show how the same name could be spelled in several medieval ways.
History
The surname appears in scattered medieval and later spellings, and the historical record shows a small cluster of related forms such as Gaddes, Gaddez, Gaddy, and Gadge. That kind of variation is typical of surnames that were written phonetically before spelling became fixed. The name is now relatively uncommon in the United States, but it survives in English-speaking surname traditions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Historical indexes sometimes group Gaddy with a whole family of lookalike surnames, which shows how flexible medieval spelling could be.
From the historical record
“withe ; another was never called by any name but Cloosedarrag, 'Red ears'; a third was Phil-a- Gaddy, or 'Phil the thief; a fourth Shaun-na-bointre, * John the (son of the) widow ' ; and one man, who was a notorious schemer, was universally called, by way of derision, or per antiphrasim, Thomas - A - sagart, "Tom…”
— The Surnames & Place-Names of the Isle of Man