Gandy
An old surname that may come either from an Old Norse word for “wolf” or from a place-name, depending on the family line.
The #3,417 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,562 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Gandy is not settled with complete confidence. One line of 19th-century scholarship links it to Old Norse gandr, glossed by some writers as “wolf,” which would make it a nickname or descriptive byname. Other sources treat it as a locational name, possibly connected with a place called Gandow or a similar lost or obscure locality; the evidence is thin, so the exact source is uncertain.
History
The name is recorded in medieval and early modern forms such as Gande, Gandy, Candy, and related spellings. In the 19th century, etymologists disagreed over whether it was Scandinavian in origin or derived from an unidentified place-name, and both explanations continued to circulate in surname dictionaries. The surname is established in Britain and later became more widely found in English-speaking countries, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname writers grouped Gandy with names built from the Old Norse gandr because of the “wolf” explanation, but even they were not fully sure they had the right root.
From the historical record
“Norse means a wolf GANDY. Ferguson says, O. Norse gandr, a wolf. GANT. See Gaunt. Le Gaut and De Gant. H.R. GANTLETT. See Gauntlett. GAPP. From residence near some gap or pass. In the chalky cliffs of Sussex many places are so called, as Birling Gap,”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom