Massey
A surname of Norman French origin, most often linked to a place-name in France and brought to England after the Norman Conquest.
The #610 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,553 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most historical sources connect Massey to a Norman place-name, especially Massay in France; some also allow other Normandy locations as possibilities. The name was later attached to English families after the Norman Conquest, and in some explanations the place-name itself is traced ultimately to a Gallo-Roman personal name or estate-name formation.
History
The surname is well known in Cheshire, where one early Norman bearer, Hamon Massie, is traditionally said to have received land at Dunham after 1066. That English branch became large and influential, and the name spread in spellings such as Massey and Massie. Some older writers also mention a competing link with place-names in Normandy or with English local forms, but the Norman-French origin is the dominant tradition.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
An old Cheshire proverb mocked the family's numbers: “As many Massies as asses.”
From the historical record
“2 Mass-Priest [O.E. mcessere] MASSEY ^ (Fr.) 1 Bel. to Mac6, Mtcey, or MASSIE )■ Massy (villages in Normandy) = MASSY ) Matheus's Estate [La t. Ma^Az- acum; -dc-um being the Lat. form of the Gaul. poss. suff. -dc-os] A de Mad ocpnrs in the list of ' Com- pagnons de Guillaume a la Conquete de I'Angleterre en MLXVI '…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)