Parnaby Family History

Perhaps as suggested in Redmonds Dictionary of Yorks Surnames, an altered form of Parlby (Old French Parlebien ‘speak well’). Interchange of /n/ and /l/ is quite common in place-names and surnames. In this instance, it may have been influenced by the co-occurrence of Farnaby in the same counties (NR Yorks, Cambs, Kent), but there is no evidence that either name was a variant of the other.

Doubtfully perhaps a variant of Barnaby with the initial consonant unvoiced. With the early bearers given below, compare Elizabeth Barneby 1672 in IGI (Cherry Hinton, Cambs) and John Barnaby 1828 in IGI (Finghall, NR Yorks).

However, these are so much later than the earliest records of Parnaby in those parishes (1543, 1670) that it is more likely that Barnaby is a local pronunciation of Parnaby by confusion of the two names.