McBride - Bumpus Genealogy

 Anatomy  of  the  " P " Surnames

Origin - Meanings of Surnames beginning with " P "

​​​                                     P A T T E R S O N
 
Patrick's son, the son of Patrick.
See Patrick
From the Latin Patrisius, noble, a senator; the name of the tutelary saint of Ireland.

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                                           P A T T O N
 
English, northern Irish, and Scottish: from a pet form of the personal namePate.
personal name Pat(t), Pate, a short form of Patrick.
nickname for a man with a bald head, pate 'head', 'skull'.
French (Pate'): Old French 'with paws' 'pawed', nickname applied presumably to man with large and clumsy hands and feet.
German: nickname for trustworthy man, pate, german pade 'godfather', 'male relative' (see Paeth), or alternatively from a personal name Bado, probably meaning 'battle', 'fight'.

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                                                           P E C K

English (mainly East Anglia): metonymic occupational name for someone who dealt in weights and measures, for example a grain factor, from Middle English pekke ‘peck’ (an old measure of dry goods equivalent to eight quarts or a quarter of a bushel). English: variant of Peak 1. Irish: variant of Peak 2. South German: variant of Beck. North German and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who prepared or sold pitch, from Middle Low German pek, Middle Dutch pec, pic. Dutch: from Middle Dutch pec, pick ‘desperate straits’, hence a nickname for a person in difficult circumstances or perhaps for someone with a gloomy disposition.

​                                            P E E B L E S
 
Locality.  from the town and shire of Peebles, in Scotland.  Pohl, Welsh, people, and lle, a place; Pobull, Gaelic, people, and cis, many; the place of many people.

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                                              P E R R Y
 
If not synonymous with Parry, it is local, from Pierre (French), a stone, signifying a stony place, abounding in rocks.

                                              P O O L (E)
 
Locality.  A small collection of water in a hollow place, supplied by a spring; a small lake.  'John at the Pool,' became 'John Pool .'  A town Dorsetshire, England.

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                                                       P R I N G L E

Scottish and English (Northumbria): habitational name from a place near Stow Roxburghshire, formerly called Hop(p)ringle, from Middle English hop ‘enclosed valley’ + a name of Old Norse origin composed of the byname Prjónn ‘pin’, ‘peg’ + an unidentified second element.

​​                                               P R Y O R
 
English: variant spelling of Prior.
Southern English, Scottish, Dutch, and German: ultimately from Latin prior 'superior'.
Irish: Irish Gaelic Mac an Phiora 'son of the prior'. Some examples may be Anglo-Norman.
Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan: from prior, probably denoting someone in the service of a prior or a nickname for someone behaved in a pompous way.

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                                              P U T N A M
 
(Origin Dutch) From Put or Putten, a well, and ham, a house or town.  Welltown, or the house by the well.