Show ContentsGuppey History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Guppey

What does the name Guppey mean?

The distinguished Old English surname Guppey means "of Gopheye," and indicates someone who hails from the town of Gopheye in Dorset.

Early Origins of the Guppey family

The surname Guppey was first found in Dorset, at Guppy (formerly Guppehegh.)

Three sources presume that the name was originally Norman and came over with the Conquest. In this case, the name was derived from either "goupil," a fox. 1 2 The Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae includes a listing for Ursel and Aufrid Gopil, Normandy 1180-95 which points to the thought that not all of the family arrived at or after the Conquest. The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 include the following listing: Richard Gopil, England. 3

However, we must defer to Henry Brougham Guppy FRS FRSE FLS (1854-1926) the noted British surgeon, geologist, botanist and photographer who was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1917. In his work Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890) he made the following entry:

"For nearly four centuries, in fact as far back as the parish registers enable us to trace the name, the principal home of the Guppys has been in Dorset, close to the Somerset and Devon borders, as shown by the wills in Somerset House; several families of well - to - do yeomen bearing this name resided in Halstock, South Perrott, Cheddington, and Frampton, during the 16th and 17th centuries. Pickyeate, Pykeyeate, or Picket, in South Perrott, was the residence of a family of Guppy or Guppie as far back as the reign of Elizabeth, and the name has since been frequent in the South Perrott registers until within the last twenty years. From Dorset the name extended into the surrounding counties of Somerset, Devon, and Wilts, in the last two of which it is now very rare or extinct. " 4

We continue to include more of his research later in this work.

Evidence of the Guppy parish has been lost over the years, but we did find record of Nicholas Gopheye who according to the Subsidy Rolls of Somerset held estates there in 1327. Due to the fact that Dorset borders onto Somerset, one can easily understand how he claimed Dorset as his original homestead.

Early History of the Guppey family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Guppey research. Another 384 words (27 lines of text) covering the years 1392, 1639, 1685, 1710, 1747 and 1763 are included under the topic Early Guppey History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Guppey Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Guppy, Goobie, Gophy, Gophie, Guppey, Gooby, Goby, Gobey, Guby, Gube and many more.

Early Notables of the Guppey family

Distinguished members of the family include Lewis Goupy (d. 1747), French-born, English painter who went to London before 1710 , where he is said to have had a brother already resident as...
Another 31 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Guppey Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Guppey family

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: John Guppie, who came to Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1653; Wm Guppy, who settled in Barbados in 1685; John Guppy, who immigrated to Maryland in 1771; Samuel Guppy, who was living in New York in 1834.


Contemporary Notables of the name Guppey (post 1700) +

  • Joseph D. Guppey, American politician, Mayor of Dover, New Hampshire, 1879-80 5


  1. Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
  2. Harrison, Henry, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Company, 2013. Print
  3. The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States Of America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1975. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0636-X)
  4. Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
  5. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, February 1) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html


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