Recorded in several spelling forms including Ida, Ide, Iddy, Hiddy, Hiddey, and Yedy, this is an English surname. It can be either locational from the village of Ide in Devonshire or derive from a pre 8th Century personal name "Ida" which later developed into a medieval surname. The personal name is from the Anglo-Saxon and ultimately German "Idja", meaning to work or to be industrious. The personal name was equally popular for both male and female, and remained so in England until the arrival of the Norman-French Invaders of 1066. It died out completely in the 15th Century, before being revived to popularity after 1847 when Tennysons poem "The Princess Ida" appeared. The surname was always rare and as a locational surname it was not recorded in its "home" of Devon until 1831, when William Ide was christened at Thorveton Church on the 20th of February of that year. A much earlier "modern" example was Anthony Ide who married Margaret Sorrell at St. Gabriel's Church, London on June 14th 1599, whilst in the dialectal form as Hiddy, it is recorded in London on September 2nd 1792 at Christ Church Greyfriars, when Sarah Hiddy, the daughter of John and Sarah Hiddy was christened. The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of William Ide. This was dated 1175, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Middlesex, during the reign of King Henry 11 of England, 1154 - 1189. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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