Gregory Family History

English (of Norman origin) and French: from a personal name that was popular throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages. The Greek original Grēgorios is a derivative of grēgorein ‘to be awake to be watchful’. However the Latin form Gregorius came to be associated by folk etymology with grex gregis ‘flock herd’ under the influence of the Christian image of the good shepherd.

The Greek name was borne in the early Christian centuries by two fathers of the Orthodox Church Saint Gregory Nazianzene (c. 325–390) and Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c. 331–395) and later by sixteen popes starting with Gregory the Great (c. 540–604). It was also the name of 3rd- and 4th-century apostles of Armenia.

In North America the English form of the surname has absorbed many cognates from other languages e.g. Italian Gregorio German Slovak and Slovenian Gregor Polish Grzegorz Czech Řehoř (see Rehor) and French Gregoire and also their patronymics and other derivatives e.g. Polish Grzegorczyk.