Ice
A rare surname that is probably a shortened or altered form of names from northern Europe, though its exact origin is uncertain.
The #8,295 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,302 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is not securely explained in the historical sources. In English it looks like a surname that may have arisen by shortening, spelling change, or anglicization of a longer northern European name, rather than directly from the common noun "ice." Some older surname writers also connected similar short forms with Dutch or Frisian diminutive patterns, but that is only a broad possibility, not a firm derivation for this exact name.
History
The available excerpts do not give a clear entry for ICE itself, only passing references and broader discussion of similar short surnames. As a result, there is no dependable historical account here of a single place of origin or of an early family line. In modern U.S. records it is a scarce surname, which fits a name that may have multiple small origins or a heavily altered spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because ICE is so short, it often gets discussed by surname scholars as the kind of name that can come from several different paths, including shortening and immigrant spelling change.
From the historical record
“in the great tapestry room moved to and fro, swayed by the currents of air behind the wainscot, they imprinted on the imagination of the solitary inmate impressions which fifty years and more have failed to efi^ice from the mind of the writer'. As, moreover, the times were crowded with political, social, and…”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances