Tice
A surname that may come either from the old personal name Tisa or as a short form of Matthias.
The #3,529 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,514 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Tice has more than one possible origin in the historical sources. One line of explanation connects it with an Old English personal name, Tisa, which is treated as a form of older Anglo-Saxon names such as Tesa or Tasa. Another source tradition treats Tice as a shortened form of Matthias, making it a pet or clipped personal-name surname.
History
The name appears in English surname collections chiefly as a personal-name derivative rather than a place-name. Because the evidence is mixed, it is hard to say that one origin fits every family named Tice. Later spelling forms such as Teece and Teace are found alongside Tice, reflecting ordinary variation in English surname spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname writers linked Tice to an Old English name related to the word for "pleasant," though that explanation is not certain and may be speculative.
From the historical record
“TIBKIN = Tib (v. Tibb) +the E. pet suff. -kin. TICE (Eng.) the A.-Sax. pers. name Tisa, app. . a var. of Tesa, Tasa [f. O.E. ge)ti,se, pleasant (for the change from -s- to -c- 1 cp. ' twice '] TlCEHURST(Eng.) Bel. to Ticehurst (Suss:), 14th - istn cent. Tichehurst, Ticheshurst, Tichesherst, Tychehurst [for the…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)