Froud Family History

either from an unrecorded Middle English word *frode ‘wise prudent’ (Old English frōd) or possibly from Middle English froude frode frude ‘frog toad’ (compare Old Scandinavian frauð) though this is a characteristically northern word whereas the modern distribution of the surname it typically south-eastern. Some of the following post-medieval bearers may alternatively belong with (2) especially the Hants example. sometimes a reduced form of Middle English froward ‘contrary wilful unruly’. See Frewer . This name may however have been confused with (1). perhaps occasionally from the Middle English personal name Frode probably representing a Norman French form of Old Scandinavian Fróði Frothi although the corresponding Old English Frōda and Continental Germanic Frodo are also formally possible. All are from a root meaning ‘wise knowledgeable’. The Frodo mentioned in Domesday Book was a brother of the abbot of Bury Saint Edmunds and was genere Gallus (‘of French descent’).

Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016