Hussey
A surname with strong Norman roots, likely from a French place-name and later established in Ireland and southwest England.
The #3,867 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,647 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is generally explained as locational, from Norman French place-names such as de Hosse, de Heuze, or a similar form in Normandy. Older writers also linked it with a word meaning a boot or buskin, but the place-name explanation is the safer one. In English records the surname appears early in medieval forms like de Hosa and related spellings.
History
The Hussey family is recorded in medieval England, and one branch became prominent in Ireland. Lower notes that the Irish line descended from Sir Hugh Hussey, who acquired land in Meath in the time of Henry II and later held the title Barons of Galtrim. The surname also became strongly represented in southwest England, and several spelling variants survived in local records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
An old family tradition said the name came from a boot or buskin, and the crest was said to feature a boot.
From the historical record
“HUSON". A contraction of Ilughson — the son of Hugh. HUSSEY. According to Stapleton's Eotuli Scaccarii Normannia3, Osbertde H., wlio was living in 1180, was so named from le Hozu, a fief in the parish of Grand Que- villy near Rouen. And one Henry de la Hosse or Heuze held, inter alias, the lands of Hosse. Ibid.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom