Noyes
Originally a place-based surname, likely meaning someone from Noyon or a similar Norman place-name linked to a walnut tree.
The #3,666 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,797 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is usually explained as a Norman locational name, from Noye or Noyon in Normandy, and ultimately from a place-name associated with Latin nux, meaning "nut" or "walnut tree." In older French usage, the underlying word could refer to a walnut, so the name may originally have meant someone living by or coming from a place marked by walnut trees. Some 19th-century writers also connected it with the Norman place-name Noyon-sur-Andelle.
History
English bearers of the name were traditionally said to descend from Norman settlers who came over around the Conquest and established branches in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Sussex, and Cornwall. The related forms Noy, Noye, Noyes, and Noyce appear in older records, and the surname later became established in both England and North America. The spelling Noyes is especially familiar in the United States and England.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
An old tradition linked the family with three brothers said to have settled in different English counties after coming from Normandy.
From the historical record
“NOYCE \ (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Dweller by a Nux- NOYES /Tree; spec, a Walnut-Tree [Fr. mix (O.Fr. mis), a walnut, nut ; Lat. nux, nucis, a nut (-tree] NUGENT (Fr.) Bel. to Nogent (common in France;=the Fair (Wet) Mead [Fr. noue, a wet meadow; L.Lat. Borfa + O.FT.gent{e, fair; l.a.t.genit-; f.^e«i, a patrician family] Noe…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)