Skeath Family History

From Middle English scath(e) northern Middle English scaithe (Old Scandinavian skaðe) ‘hurt harm injury’ perhaps for someone with a visible injury sustained in battle or as a punishment or else elliptical for the phrasal nickname Waiteskath ‘inflict or intend injury on (someone)’ attested in Ranulpho Wayteskathe 1327 in Subsidy Rolls (Eastwood Notts). In Caxton's Reynard the Fox (1481) the fox's confessor goes by the name of Friar Wolf Waitskath.

It is also possible but not on record that Middle English scath(e) had the additional sense ‘wrong-doer robber’ that belonged to Middle English shath(e) (Old English sceaða scaða a cognate of Old Scandinavian skaðe). Skeath is a post-medieval spelling of scathe and scaithe.

In E Anglia where Middle English ā was raised to [ɛ:] and then [e:] during the 15th century there may have been some confusion with Skeet.

Perhaps occasionally from an early unrecorded Middle English personal name *Skathe Old Scandinavian Skaði derived from the nickname in (i). It is possibly attested in the place-name Scatholme (about 1225) now Scalm Park and Wood in Wistow (WR Yorks).

Doubtfully from one or more places named with Old Scandinavian skeið ‘racecourse’ perhaps also ‘track boundary road’ or ‘boundary’ including The Skeyth (lost) in Leicester (Leics) and Wickham Skeith (Suffolk). Compare Old Danish skade ‘boundary’ which is the probable sense in Wickham Skeith. Since none of the medieval examples of the surname have a preposition this origin is uncertain and the surname is recorded only late and rarely in either Leics or Suffolk.