Origin
Kirby : 1: English: habitational name from any of numerous places in northern and eastern England called Kirby or Kirkby from Old Norse kirkja ‘church’ + bȳ ‘farmstead village’.2: Irish: adopted for Ó Garmhaic ‘descendant of Cíarmhac’ a personal name meaning ‘dark son’. Compare Kerwick.3: Irish: Anglicized form of Mac Geirble ‘son of Geirble’ a personal name of uncertain origin. The name is preserved in the townland name of Carrowkeribly in County Mayo.4: Americanized form of French Corbeil or of its cognate Corbeille which is in North America (also) an altered form of the former name.
Beeden : 1: from either Bidon or La Ville-Bidon (Ille-et-Villaine Brittany). The short vowel of Bidon was frequently lowered and lengthened to produce the spellings Beedon and Beeden. Stow Bedon and Kirby Bedon Norfolk were held by John de Bidun in 1212. It is probably the principal source of the surname Beedon in E Anglia and a contributor to Bedden in the Midlands. Some bearers listed below may however belong at (2). 2: from any of various places named with Old English byden ‘vessel for liquids’ in a transferred topographic sense such as ‘tub-shaped hollow’ or ‘narrow steep valley’. These include Benna in Christow Betham in Witheridge and Bidna in Northam (all in Devon) Bidden in Upton Grey (Hants) and Beedon (Berks). Early surname forms with atte are more likely to be topographic alluding not to a settlement but to a local landscape feature named with Middle English biden (western dialect) buden reflexes of the Old English word. Surnames with this etymology will be pronounced /'bɪdən/ or /'bi:den/ as in (1) and some bearers listed below may alternatively belong at (1).from Baydon (Wilts) or Beadon (in Hennock Devon) both possibly ‘berry hill’ from Old English beg + dūn. Alternatively the first element is the Old English female personal name Bēage (related to Old English bēag Middle English bei biʒe bye) ‘ring bracelet torque’. This would explain the 1327 surname de Bigedene in East Meon (Hants) with the not uncommon Middle English substitution of -den for -don in the Wilts place-name. The 1332 example in Lustleigh (adjacent to Hennock) clearly belongs to Beadon and the 1377 and 1381 examples of Beydon in Wilts and Surrey allude to Baydon as may do a number of examples spelled Bidon Bydon Byden etc. pronounced /'baidən/ in Modern English.for someone who lived by the hill from Middle English bi doun (Old English Middle English dūn ‘hill’) as in the 1332 Bishop's Tawton (Devon) example. 3: from Beeding (Sussex) recorded as æt Beadingum (about 880) Bedingges (1073) Beding (1327) and Byding (1330 1362) in Place-Names of Sussex. The place-name denoted ‘the people of Bēada’ from an Old English personal name + the Old English plural suffix -ingas forming folk-names. In the surname the final -ing may sometimes have been reduced to -en but some bearers listed below may belong at other senses. 4: see Beedham probably a major source of the name in the E Midlands.
Fothergill : English: possibly a habitational name from an altered form of the placename Faggergill in Arkengarthdale North Yorkshire. This is recorded in 1280 as Fagardegile (‘sheep enclosure ravine’?) and was presumably the home of Robert de Fagardgill recorded in 1327. Arkengarthdale in Upper Swaledale is not far from Kirkby Stephen just over the county border in Westmorland where the earliest example of Fothergill (spelled Fothergall) is found in 1379. The long-standing social network that existed between Upper Swaledale and Kirkby Stephen families is illustrated by the marriage in 1663 in Grinton parish church of “William Harrison and Alice Fothergill of Mallerstang in the parish of Kirby Stephen”. If this is the correct origin obscure Fagard- has been replaced by Middle English fother futher ‘cart-load measure of weight used in selling lead’; Upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale were areas of sheep farming and lead mining during the high Middle Ages and subsequent centuries. However there is no evidence that the placename was ever referred to as Fothergill.
Grimston : from one or more of the many places so called such as Grimston in Kirkby Wharfe (WR Yorks) Grimston in Dunnington Grimston Garth in Garton with Grimston Hanging Grimston in Kirby Underdale and North Grimston (all ER Yorks) Grimston in Gilling (NR Yorks) Grimston (Norfolk) Grimstone End in Pakenham (Suffolk) Grimston Hill in Wellow (Notts) Grimston (Leics) Grimstone in Stratton (Dorset) and Grimston in Blackawton (Devon).
Mowthorpe : from Mowthorpe in Kirby Grindalythe (ER Yorks) or Mowthorpe in Terrington (NR Yorks) both recorded as Muletorp in the 11th and 12th centuries. The place-names derive from the Old Scandinavian personal name Múli + Old Scandinavian þorp ‘secondary settlement outlying farmstead’.
Sigston : from Sigston in Kirby Sigston (NR Yorks) which is recorded as Siggestune and Siggeston from the 11th to 15th centuries. The place-name probably derives from the Old Scandinavian personal name Siggr (genitive Sigges) + Old English tūn ‘farmstead estate’.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
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