Opie Family History
Opie Name Meaning
English (Devon and Cornwall): from an unrecorded Middle English personal name Opy or Oppy which is attested in 16th-century Cornwall as a pet form of Middle English Osbert (mainly a Norman name an Old French borrowing of ancient Germanic Oseberht from ōs ‘god’ + berht ‘bright’). There may have also been a voiced pet form Oby (see Hobby ). Loss of -s- in Osbert may explain some examples of Hobart though this name usually had a different origin. Middle English Osbert is mainly found in southern England the Midlands and Essex and it was especially favoured in West Cornwall where its usual pet form was Hoskin . In England generally it was frequently confused with the less common personal name Osbern (see Osborne ). Opy was probably a pet form of Osbern as well.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
