Day Family History
Day Surname Meaning
English: occupational name from Middle English day(e) dey(e) ‘dairyman or dairymaid’. Originally used only of women, it was later used of men with the sense ‘man in charge of the dairy cattle’. This is probably the most common source of the surname.
English: from the Middle English personal name Day(e) or Dey. In western England, this is probably a pet form of David but in northern England and perhaps elsewhere also, it is a late Middle English variant of Daw, a pet form of Ralph (see Daw Dakin).
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deaghaidh (see O'Dea). Scottish: from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Daìdh, a colloquial form of David.
Welsh: from the personal name Dai, a pet form of the personal name Dafydd, Welsh form of David. French: habitational name from a place called Day in the Ardennes.
French: possibly also a habitational name with fused preposition d(e) ‘of from’ denoting someone from Ay in Marne. German: variant of Dey and in North America (also) an altered form of this.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022