Recorded as Blaby, Blabey, Blabie, and Bleby, this is an English surname. It is locational from either the village of Blaby near Peterborough, or the village of Blaby in the county of Leicestershire, this place being first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, as "Blabi". In either case the name means "The dark farm" from the pre 7th century Norse-Viking word "blar" meaning dark and "-bi" a farmstead. Quite why either place should be regarded as "dark" is uncertain, but as far as the Leicestershire village is concerned it is probable that the village was in a forest and possibly the then edge of the famous Sherwood Forest, as this extended from Nottinghamshire down into Leicester. The surname is one of the most ancient with John de Blabi appearing in the the Hundred Rolls of the county of Yorkshire in the year 1273, and later in 1361, John de Blaby was the rector of North Barsham, in the county of Norfolk. Tristran Blaby was recorded in the register of students of Oxford University in 1579 whilst slightly earlier Thomas Bleby of Ebworth in Lincolnshire was recorded there on June 25th 1544, in the reign of King Henry V111 of England, 1510 -1547.

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