What ethnicity is the last name Key?

Question

I've been looking forever on a million different sites and nothing about my last name. Anyone know?!? =/

Answer 1

Spelling variations of this family name include: Keyes, Key, Keys, Keye, Keyse and others.

First found in Yorkshire where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: John Key settled in the Barbados in 1634; Adam Key settled in Virginia in 1639; Peter Key settled in Virginia in 1653; Thomas and Sarah Key settled in Virginia in 1649.

this is the information I found when researching my family who had a Key ( Keyes ) marry into ours.

Answer 2

Variation of Kay

Kay Name Meaning and History

English: nickname from Middle English ca ‘jackdaw’, from an unattested Old Norse ká. See also Daw.

English: nickname from Middle English cai, kay, kei ‘left-handed’, ‘clumsy’.

English: metonymic occupational name for a locksmith, from Middle English keye, kaye ‘key’. Compare Care, Kear.

English: topographic name for someone living on or near a quay, Middle English kay(e), Old French cay.

English: from a Middle English personal name which figures in Arthurian legend. It is found in Old Welsh as Cai, Middle Welsh Kei, and is ultimately from the Latin personal name Gaius.

Scottish and Irish: reduced form of McKay.

French: variant of Quay, cognate with 2.

Much shortened form of any of various names, mostly Eastern European, beginning with the letter K-.

Variant of Danish and Frisian Kai.

If you are trying to find your ancestry. you will  have to do the research.

Answer 3

OMG! I HAVE KEY IN ME TOO!

A GDD WEBSITES WOULD BE HOUSEONAMES.COM!

I HAVE KEY IN ME TOO! THAT IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME!

Answer 4

Surname: Key

This interesting surname with variant spellings Kay, Kaye, Kayes, Keay, Keays, Keeys, Key, Keye, Keyes, Keys, Keyse, is derives from a number of different sources. Firstly, it may be an occupational name for a maker of keys or for someone who held the office of key bearer, deriving from the old English pre 7th Century "coeg" meaning "key". Secondly, it may be a topographical name for someone who lived by a wharf or was employed on one, deriving from the middle English, old French "Kay(e)", meaning "quay". Thirdly, it may be from the middle English given name Kay of Celtic origin from the old Welsh "cai" meaning "corn", which was borne by the boastful foster-brother of King Arthur. This name may be ultimately derived from the old Roman given name Gaius. Fourthly, it may be a nickname from the jackdaw, deriving from the Northern middle English "kay" old Norse "ka". Finally, it may be a nickname for a left-handed man, deriving from the Danish "kei" meaning "left". One Cecilia de Kay (1199) is recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire and Adam Kay (1218), "The Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire". One Margaret Key, aged 20, a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the Queen-of-the-West bound for New York, on April 11th 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Cai, which was dated 1197, in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199.

Answer 5

Probably British.  Here is a link that might help.

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/KEYs...