Parish
A surname for someone who lived by the parish church or in the settlement attached to it.
The #2,498 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,343 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from Middle English forms like parisch(e), from Old French paroisse and ultimately Latin parochia, meaning a church parish or ecclesiastical district. In surname use, it probably referred to someone living in or near the village or settlement associated with the parish church, rather than the wider administrative district. The word’s deeper ancestry goes back to Greek paroikia, meaning a sojourning or temporary dwelling.
History
Lower explains the name as arising where ‘parish’ meant the village around the church, so people were identified by their parish-side residence. Harrison gives a similar explanation and cites an early bearer, Willelmus de Parysch, in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. The surname survives mainly in England and English-speaking countries, and the spelling has varied over time between Parish, Parysh, and related forms.
Origin
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Fun fact
The surname is not primarily about church membership, but about where a person lived: right by the parish church or its little settlement.
From the historical record
“Paris is a very common French surname. PARISH (A.-Fr.-Lat.-Gr.) Dweller at the Ecclesiastical Area so called [M.E. parisch(e, parysch{e, Fr. paroisse, Lat. parcBcia; Gt. irapoiKla, a sojourning] Willelmus de Parysch. — YorksPoll-Tax,.A.D. 1379.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)