Kilby
A surname usually taken from the village of Kilby in Leicestershire, though some bearers may reflect related local-name forms like Kilbey or Gilbey.
The #7,534 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 69,979 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kilby is most commonly explained as a locational surname, meaning someone who came from Kilby in Leicestershire. The place-name is Old English in origin, and the surname later spread as people moved away from their home parish. Some 19th-century writers also treated related forms such as Kilbey, Killbee, and Gilbey as spelling variants or possible offshoots of the same local source.
History
The name appears in English records in several spellings, especially Kilby and Kilbey, and it was noted by earlier surname scholars as a typical local surname. Lower specifically identified Kilby as a parish name in Leicestershire and remarked that northern forms ending in -by were sometimes written -bee. Because similar-looking surnames overlap in the records, some bearers may descend from variant spellings rather than a single fixed line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley treated Kilby as a good example of how English place-names can generate several surname spellings, including forms that look quite different at first glance.
From the historical record
“parish in Yorkshire. KILBY. KILLBY. A parish in co. Leicester. KILHAM. KILLHAM. A township in Northumberland, and a parish in York- shire. KILLBEE. KILBEY. See Kilby. I may remark that many local names termi- nating in BY, are corrupted in the North to BEE.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom