Dear
Visitor,
I
have had several enquiries as to the origin of the name Kilby and
decided it was to time to add a page to that fact.
I believe my
Kilby name originates from the village of 'Kilby', nr Wigston,
Leicestershire; and I'm sticking to that until proven otherwise. But
it is best to try and follow your own line back as far as you can;
as there are several variants of the name Kilby, i.e Kilbey, Kilbee
etc and each appear to have a slightly different meaning or origin,
you can only decide amongst yourselves which is correct.
While searching you will
come across several references to Kilby some of which have been
noted in important documents like the 'Doomesday Book' and I
have even found several showing different 'Coats of
Arms' and 'Family crests' (all wanting a charge to view - so
beware).
Below is a page you may
find helpful - from Craig M. Kilby and his findings, also here is a
link to the kilbygenealogy.com origin - click
here
At the end of
the day though, you will have to reach your own conclusion.
Origins
of the Kilby Name
This
page has been reproduced from http://users.belgacom.net/mario.wyns/kilbyorigins.html
- now with kind permission from Craig M.
Kilby, 26/09/04.
The surname "Kilby" is commonly thought to be English in
origin, derived from the town of Kilby in Leicestershire or the town of
Kelby in Lincolnshire. The latter is probably the chief parent of the
name. Variations of it are Kilbey, Kilby, Killby, Killbee, Kelby, Gilbey,
Gilbee, Gilby, etc.1
In some cases, the name may also be celtic in origin, as a variant of
the name MacKilvey. Among the Irish forms of the name are MGilleboy,
M'Gilboy, MacKelvie, MacKelvey, Mackilbouy, Gilby, Killby, Kilby, Kilboy,
and Kilvey.2
The town of Kilby, England, is located just south of Leicester, about
90 miles northwest of London. I visited the town in December of 1988,
and found there a small village whose chief enterprise was
quintessential English pub call "The Dog and Gun." One of the
patrons was an elderly historian who had been born in the building.
While he never knew anyone named Kilby, he did inform me that for a man
to take the name of the town he lived in, he must have been a property
owner there. In fact, most of the earliest records of the name are
prefaced by the word "de", meaning "from."
The word "Kilby" itself is derived from two words, "Kil"
and "By." "Kil" is derived from the Latin word
meaning "cell." It means church, monastery, or cell, and was
adopted by both the Gaelic and Saxon speaking priests, who spoke and
wrote in Latin. It is a very common prefix among towns in Ireland and
Scotland, but is much less common in English towns. This is perhaps due
to the fact that the Viking invaders concentrated their attacks on Saxon
England where they destroyed many churches and religious sites. Scotland
and Ireland also suffered Viking invasions, to be sure, but colonization
was not practiced to as great an extent.3
"By" is a Danish word meaning "place of." Over
300 towns in the area of Kilby and Kelby end with the Danish suffix
"by." Some of these towns are purely Danish in name, while
others had the "by" attached to pre- existing Saxon town names
(known as hybrid names.)4
Both Kilby and Kelby are towns in the "Danelaw" area--an
area in the east midlands consisting of five boroughs which the Danish
invaders conquered and settled around 877. The town of Kilby is at least
1,000 years old. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Cilebi"
in what was perhaps England's first census in 1066.
The town was described thus in the Domesday Book survey:
"In Guthlaxton Wapentake [a district] Oger the Breton
holds two parts of one hide [a land unit reckoned as 120 acres]
in Cilebi [Kilby] from the King, that is 12 c. of land. In
Lordship 8 ploughs, 2 slaves. Nine villagers with seven smallholders
and ten freemen have four ploughs. A mill at 2 shillings, meadow, 12
acres. The value was and is 40 shillings. Eurad [Everard the Saxon]
held it freely before 1066.5
A more colorful, if less scholarly, legend is given by Minnie Boone in
her book "Our Family Heritage." I have doubts about much of
her work, but for what it is worth I will quote her in entirety:
"The name Kilbey is of Celtic origin. It was anciently
Killbride. More anciently it was a long involved word "Cillobrighid"
meaning devoted to Bridget [St. Bridget Ireland]. In the
Domesday Book the name is recorded Kilbyre [which, as we have seen
it was not]. Later spellings were Kilbye, Kilbey, Kilbee, and
Kilby."
Boone goes on to describe the coat of arms and the legend surrounding
it:
"SHIELD--Argent (silver) with three torteaux (red discs) in
fess (horizontally across the shield) between two barrulets (narrow
horizontal stripes) azure (blue).
CREST--A hand issuing from a cloud points to a crozier in pale (verticle)
proper (natural).
The Kilbey family Armorial Coat as recorded in Burke's General
Armory, and verified as authentic for the line of the Indian fighters
- William Kilbey 1706 by W. E. Tennesse.
Since the earliest times the Kilbey family has been closely
associated with the church. It has produced many churchmen hence the
torteaux on their shield."
"This legend has come down from Anglo-Saxon England about the
crest on the Kilbey coat of arms: There was a contest as to the
Abbotship of the great monastery at Petersborough. The candidate who
seemingly had the best right to the position was a Kilbey, priest of
one of the adjacent churches. He won "By God's Will." The
Crozier was a symbol of the Abbot, and the Divine hand pointing
thereto out of the clouds represents God's Will.
There is no motto with the Kilbey display of arms owning to the
antiquity of the heraldic grant.6
Despite this fantastic legend, the source for which Boone does not cite,
it does appear that Kilby's are frequently found as men of the cloth,
church elders, or other prominent church positions.
The Coat of Arms described by Boone appears to be accurate, or nearly
so. It is almost identical to the Coat of arms used by Christopher Kilby
of Boston, which in turn had been granted to Humphrey Kilby in 1660. The
primary difference between the two is that the "hand issuing from a
cloud pointing to a Crozier" is replaced with a Knight's helmet and
visor, capped by an ear of corn, and the inclusion of the motto "Persisto."7
1
Charles Wareing Bardsley, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames,
(Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), p. 450.
2
Rev. Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames, (Baltimore
Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969), p. 368.
3
C.M. Matthews, Place Names of the English Speaking World, (New
York: Charles Scribner, 1972), pp. 157-158. Amanda S. Cato, BS
Linguistics, Georgetown University.
4
Michael Wood, Domesday, A Search of the Roots of England, (New
York: Oxford Press, Facts on File Publications, 1986), p. 134.
5
Domesday Book, editors John Morris and Philip Morgan, (Chichester,
Sussex, England: Philimore & Co., Ltd., 1979), Vol. XXII, p. 263a
(from Leicestershire entry no. 30).
6
Minnie S. Boone, Our Family Heritage, (Private Printing, 1956),
p. 152.
7
Personal correspondence with Christopher Kilby of Newington, CT, letter
dated 17 April 1999. Bolton's Americn Armory, 1964.
Welcome to
Kilby.org.uk
