Peabody
An English surname that likely began as a nickname for someone thought to be flashy or showily dressed.
The #6,367 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 57,763 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-known explanation breaks the name into Middle English pea, used in older surname glosses as a nickname element, and body, from Middle English bodi / Old English bodig. In that reading, the surname was probably a descriptive nickname rather than a literal reference to a pea or to a person’s body. Nineteenth-century surname writers treated it as a nickname for a conspicuously dressed or striking person, though the exact sense of the first element is not entirely secure.
History
Early surname books note variant spellings such as Paybody and Peabody, and one source says it had no very early trace in the records it consulted. The name is English in origin and later became established in North America, where it is now best known through the Peabody family name. Because early spellings vary, some uncertainty remains about the precise original form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name was already being discussed by 19th-century surname scholars, who compared it with other nickname surnames ending in -body, such as Goodbody and Freebody.
From the historical record
“Richard le Pe.—Hund. Rolls. PEABODY (Eng.) = Pea (q.v.) + body [M.E. bodi, O.E.bodigl App. a nickname for a showily-dressed individual. PEACE, a va'r. of Pace, q.v. PEACH \ (A.-Fr.) i Bel. to Pech (France) ; PEACHE J or Dweller at a Hill, Peak [a”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)