Shewbridge Family History

English (Kent): variant of Shoebridge apparently a nickname altered from early modern English shew-bread a reference to ‘the twelve loaves that were placed every Sabbath 'before the Lord' on a table beside the altar of incense and at the end of the week were eaten by the priests alone’ first recorded in Tyndale's Bible translation (1530).

The earliest name-form may be a reinterpretation sparked by the contemporary interest in Bible-translation; it also may stand as an intermediate form between the modern name and an original unlocated placename in southeastern England.

Perhaps Shoebury (Essex) or possibly the recurring minor placename Shovelbrede ‘shovel's breadth' as in Shulbrede (Sussex), but both these possible origins offer phonological difficulties.